La précarisation des parcours sur le segment secondaire de l’emploi à la Commission européenne de Bruxelles

Abstract

The European Commission (EC) in Brussels is often seen as a European-minded “body” of privileged civil servants. However, at the heart of this institution today, different types of workers exist, under various professional statuses. While looking closer at the social morphology, the diversity of backgrounds, and at hybridisation within the EC, it is clear that there is a certain gap between the positions of permanent and non-permanent workers. In this paper, we will focus on this population of skilled workers. We will try to depict the migratory paths, and social backgrounds of those that are said to be entering the institution through the “small door”. 1234 questionnaires, 22 interviews, and a certain number of observations and notes have been analysed in order to develop a critical discussion on the EC staff conditions of work and life. We will then explore comparatively, both the experiences and representations of this skilled yet “precarious” youth, coming from different European countries. The spatial and social inequalities at the centre of this European transnational “elite” are at the core of our analysis.