Does Enhancing European Identity Promote Economic Solidarity? Changes in Identities and Interests during the Erasmus Exchange

As European countries individually, and the European Union collectively, have attempted to respond to the economic crisis in recent years, some previously-unthinkable steps in economic integration have been proposed (e.g. the introduction of Eurobonds, a move to full fiscal union); some have even been introduced (e.g. Commisison oversight of national budgets). However, the absence of a self-identifying European demos, characterized by strong transnational bonds of solidarity, is sometimes seen as a major impediment to further European integration. While promotion of a mass European identity may difficult to engineer, participation in an Erasmus educational exchange, for example, has been shown to enhance participants’ self-identification as European and the extent to which they identify with Europe and other Europeans [1]. In such an instance, when European identity is demonstrably enhanced, does it in fact foster transnational economic solidarity and increase support for policies that would advance economic integration? These are the questions that I will tackle in the proposed paper, by analyzing novel longitudinal data from nearly 2000 students from universities in four Eurozone countries.

References:

[1] Mitchell, K. “Rethinking the ‘Erasmus Effect’ on European Identity” Journal of Common Market Studies 53 (2) Mar 2015.