ABSTRACT
Freedom of movement is one of the fundamental pillars of the EU, actively encouraging migration within the EU. While in general there is strong support for freedom of movement among EU citizens, it varies between individual citizens as well as across European countries. One key question, investigated in this chapter, is whether EU citizens who perceive free movement as an opportunity (have a positive mobility attitude) or already have used the opportunity (have experience with it) are more supportive of it, while those who cannot or do not want to make use of free movement are less supportive. The results indicate that positive mobility attitudes were indeed associated with higher support for free movement. Having first-hand experience of mobility, in contrast, does not seem to have any impact on free movement support. The analysis continues to zoom in further on the demonstrated association between mobility attitudes and support for free movement. A key finding is that this association explains variation specifically for outward free movement support (‘I and others have the right to emigrate’). Comparing the six countries studied, we find that the effect of mobility attitudes on support for free movement was especially strong in Germany, Hungary and Sweden.
