Freedom of movement is an ideal to aspire to, but maybe the reality we live in now is that immigration needs to be managed to maintain social cohesion. People need time to stop thinking of themselves as British or German first but rather European. Eastern European countries need time to develop. The Eurozone needs time to stabilize. Eventually I think the EU will get there, but maybe for now, the survival of the European project depends on reconciling ideals with realities.
People need time to stop thinking of themselves as British or German first but rather European.
This. But I will add that it is mainly the English that do not consider themselves part of Europe. You'll find much more European identity on the mainland, or north of Hadrian's wall.
> People need time to stop thinking of themselves as British or German first but rather European.
Things like this is what's pushing people to brexit. 20 year old sheltered college liberals who never saw life outside their rich parent private houses telling people what to think and what is best for them. People are tired of being called -ists and -phobes, and this vote result expresses the sentiment.
Just because some people think globalism is cool, doesn't mean everyone wants it. Globalism isn't some universal goal everyone should be moving to. There are tons and tons of people that don't want globalization, and they were silent for a long time, but their patience is running out. UK is not some kind of exception, same thing on the rise is in US and many other countries too.
That's true about wages (although some are close to South Europe at least). How is that hindering the EU though? Do you mean workers migrating for higher pay? Is that not, economically, beneficial for both parties?
Overall for a country it can be beneficial to have immigrants, but it can be hurtful to low-skilled workers in that country to have to compete against the foreign workers. Higher skilled workers usually have less to worry about as connections, language skills, and industry-specific experience give them an incumbent advantage. I realize one of the founding goals of freedom of movement was to allow workers to be able to move to countries with greater opportunities, and that that is overall a good thing. But politically speaking, how do you ensure that you don't alienate large swathes of the working class, and make sure that their needs are attended to as well? As globalization and technology displace more and more jobs, it becomes very easy for people to fall into the trap of joblessness. They then fuel the radical right movements that are springing up across Europe.
This is a conundrum indeed, managing the line between what makes sense (economically or otherwise) and what's acceptable to an population. The coming wave of automation related job displacement is gonna make immigration related job loss look like a small thing.
I keep getting back to (forms of) basic income when thinking about how these scenarios would play out.
