Brigit Glorius, Izabela Grabowska-Lusińska & Aimee Kuvik (eds.): Mobility in Transition. Migration Patterns After EU Enlargement

The EU enlargement in the beginning of twenty-first century can be seen by demographers as a huge natural experiment regarding migrations. The book ‘‘Mobility in transition. Migration patterns after EU enlargement’’ describes some aspects of massive post-accession migration, but proposes also a reflection on how understanding of migration processes inside the EU has been changing based on the observations from Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). Furthermore, the authors of the book suggest that observing mobility inside the EU only through the lens of long-term migration statistics and economic incentives is not sufficient and propose to refer to two concepts, ‘‘mobility in transition’’ and ‘‘liquid life’’, in order to better understand not only post-accession migration but also post-crisis migration and other contemporary migrations of labour inside the European Union. The term ‘‘mobility in transition’’, which was also used in the title of the book, refers to so-called mobility transition hypothesis (Zelinsky 1971). According to this hypothesis, a personal mobility described as ‘‘widening range of options for locating and pattering one’s life’’ is one of the essential components of modernisation process. The new technologies indeed create opportunities to increase spatial mobility, but social acceptance of different forms of mobility seems to be also important. The second term ‘‘liquid life’’ refers to post-modernistic sociological theory formulated by Bauman (2005). The theory claims that stable social institutions (class, family, local labour market, community, nation state) are of fading relevance and are being replaced by flexible institutions (reference group, relationships with ‘‘no strings attached’’, global labour, individual, current country of residence). The