Introduction: The Constellationist Imagination

This introductory chapter establishes the core research problem to be addressed in the book: the conceptual tension between citizenship and mobility. It introduces the main argument of the book—that mobility should be seen as an integral part of contemporary citizenship—and the conceptual frame that will guide the empirical analysis: a ‘constellationist’ approach to migration and citizenship applied to the intra-European mobility space. The second half of the chapter describes the cases, data and methods of the empirical analyses undertaken in later chapters and outlines the chapters of the book.