News and Events

Keynote Speaker:Dr. Alessio D’Angelo (Associate Professor, Public and Social Policy, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham (UK))

16:00 - 17:00 (21 April 2021)

(HKT)

Abstract

Re-bordering Europe: structural inequalities and civic stratification from Brexit to Covid

The European Union was meant to be built on ideals of equality, human rights and increased integration, aiming to progressively remove the barriers between its members states and its citizens. Thirty years since the EU foundation treaty, such ideals are far from being met. In fact, the European continent is currently facing multiple challenges and witnessing new social and political tensions which are shaking its foundations. In several member states, the re-emergence of nationalism is being accompanied by the erosion of civic rights and by the creation (de jure or de facto) of new mechanisms of ‘internal bordering’ and stratification of rights, affecting both EU citizens and ‘third country nationals’. The rise of anti-immigration stances has been a key component of these processes - from the ‘Refugee Crisis’ in the Mediterranean to Brexit in the United Kingdom. In turn, these have been used to gain support for policy interventions and welfare engineering with extensive effects across the wider population. Most recently, the COVID19 pandemic has produced a further multiplication of inequalities across gender, class, race, citizenship – and the intersection between these. Has the European project reached a crisis point? What are the possible ways forward? Informed by a range of data sources and engaging with the latest debates, this presentation reviews recent trends and patterns of inequality across Europe, focusing on some compelling case-studies, and examining their complex relationship with broader socio-political processes at regional and global level.