Citizens gone: How emigration transforms the European state

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• MPC: Migration Policy Centre

Join Christof Roos and Anna Kyriazi as they present their latest book on the impact of emigration in Europe.

Emigration of scale challenges states at the European periphery at their core. In this MPC seminar, Christof Roos (University of Flensburg) and Anna Kyriazi (University of Milan) will present the book they co-edited 'How emigration transforms the European state' (Manchester University Press, 2026), which documents the struggles and effects of this type of emigration on politics and policy within their economic and welfare dimensions.

This publication explores how politics of emigration describe changing voter attitudes and behaviour pointing towards more support for nationalist and right-wing parties, as well as the way policies of emigration show state and local level efforts for the return of emigrant citizens. It also addresses the phenomenon from a welfare and economic perspective, exploring the context for emigration and its effects for growth models and health and care systems within the European single market. In this event, authors will also tackle two types of state transformations: the re-emergent nation-state that re-discovers its core resource, the citizenry, as well as states that functionally and socially adapt to population loss.