"The aim of this Special Issue is to investigate the impact of free movement and EU citizenship on the laws that make up traditional residence-based social security schemes at the national level. The contributions to the collection allow for comparative reflections between countries and in relation to their dealings with a multi-level normative spectrum. The character of the contributions, which are independent articles on the given topic rather than country reports based on similar methods and a common battery of questions and concepts, turn into an attractive invitation to reflect more freely on details as well as on the overall picture. In this article, I focus on two questions: Are there, in conflicts over free movement, any overarching trends, developments or patterns in how ‘residence' as a legal criterion is deployed at the national level? And, what if anything do these insights tell us about the status of solidarity and social justice in Europe? In the analysis of the comparative results I turn to the work of Nancy Fraser and end up arguing in favour of a strengthened form of European social citizenship. "

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