EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION: NEW INEQUALITIES AND VOLUNTARY SERVITUDES

Abstract

The Europe of freedom, security and justice is intended to ensure that citizenship, in principle, does not include the millions of people who reside legally in the EU but are not nationals of any Member State and it is no way intended for those who are in an irregular situation. These people are part of the real population of the states but are not classified as citizens or granted citizenship rights. Therefore they show the status of servitude that exists within European states. But not only nationals of third States have their exercise of human rights limited, so too do European citizens, as a result of the institutional and structural adjustments demanded by the global economic model. We can see the increased risks and uncertainties as a consequence of changes in the labour market, in education and the model of the state, which are bringing about a new social order. In this new model of society, security and control seem to have usurped the role hitherto played by social justice. The purpose of this research has been precisely to show the double impact that the new economic model and the knowledge and information society has on the citizens and on those who are outside or on its limits. This comparison enables us to argue that these adjustments only benefit the market and institutions, not people.