Just what makes Europeans move?

Love beats employment as the prime factor that prompts Europeans to move to another country, a new report reveals.

The aim of the Pioneur research project, which is funded by the Commission’s 5th Framework Programme, has been to look at the ‘big picture’ of internal migration within the EU – ie to shed light on the motivations, patterns and consequences of migration and to identify relevant trends. According to the report, “very little is known about the real reasons people migrate within Europe.” The researchers focused on 5,000 foreign nationals resident in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain.

While the Commission has declared 2006 the European Year of Workers’ Mobility, official figures show that less than 2% of European citizens actually live outside their native state. According to the Pioneur report, today’s archetypal European migrant is middle-class, skilled and well-educated; they think positively about the EU and seek non-manual work in his or her country of destination. Cross-border mobility is described by the report as a “more risky business” for women and the less well educated.

As for the migrants’ motivations: the most common prompts are “family/love” (29.7%), “work opportunities” (25.2%), “quality of life” (24%) and “study” (7%). In general, the researchers found that while EU movers have “favourable dispositions towards politics and a high level of political interest,” they tend to “vote less than the general population.”

“In sum,” says the report, “EU movers contribute to the legitimacy of the EU.”

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