EURO_CITI · EUROpean CITIzenship practice: political participation of transnational European senior migrants

In the context of European integration and the emergence of a leisure-oriented culture, traditional lifestyles have been replaced by new patterns of behaviour. In this regard, a remarkable phenomenon is the increasing migration of mainly retired Europeans to the coastal regions of the Mediterranean. In the last decade, major changes concerning the social and political participation of such amenity-seeking migrants have been taking place, chiefly triggered by granting EU-foreigners active and passive voting rights in local elections. Given the fact that many of the retired residents belong to the economic elite and were successful professionals, they count on powerful tools, know-how and resources to integrate and take leadership in local politics. Migrants from northern Europe founded their own parties e.g. in many Spanish municipalities and are currently active in the local councils. EURO_CITI is an innovative and interdisciplinary research project dealing with the different forms of political participation of retired European residents and principally aimed at discussing the practice of European Citizenship both in a conceptual and empirical framework.