Governing international flows of people and finance in the EU single market: How government navigation of competing demands result in perpetuated and fragmented economic strategies

The primary objective of the European Union's single market, characterized by the unrestricted movement of individuals and finance, was to foster economic convergence among its member states. However, the great financial crisis and eurozone crisis have illustrated how the amplified volatility of destabilizing international flows may compromise this promise. This paper investigates how governments in representative cases in Southern (Portugal) and Central Eastern (Poland) Europe have dealt with a core conundrum: how can they shape international flows of people and finance while upholding their commitment to the EU freedoms? This paper contends that the capacity of governments to navigate competing demands from within and across party competition, voters, and the dominant economic sector helps explain the adoption and fragmentation of new economic strategies. These are focused on imported demand in Portugal and nationalist developmentalism in Poland. It finds that semi-peripheral member states have changed their financial and migration policies to inform these strategies and shape international flows with considerable independence from the EU. Fundamentally, the capacity of governments to shape competing demands brings about differential responses to EU integration strategies.