The Double Dualization of Social Inequalities in the Eurozone Crisis

Before 2010, economic integration and regulatory harmonization in Europe led to a convergence of living standards in the EU. Since then, the Eurozone crisis has contributed to an increasing dualization of life chances, especially between Northern and Southern European and between younger and older, migrant and native, and high and low-skilled employees. This double dualization can be observed especially on the labour market that has become the most important buffer for asymmetric economic shocks, but also on the dimensions of income inequality, poverty and deprivation. These territorial and social cleavages, which will be specified and discussed on the basis of the 2005-2013 EU-SILC data, are not only shaped by individual circumstances and national industrial, welfare and employment structures, but also by the economic and political integration of Europe. On the one hand, the territorial and social dualization of employment opportunities, incomes and living conditions in Europe increases economic stress and undermines trust in the EU and national institutions. On the other hand, this dualization might contribute to a new, transnational basis of social integration due to the emergence of broader, transnational frames of reference and cross-border practices and interactions.