Unpacking European Identity

The literature has discussed European Identity without much attention to what individuals mean when they use this term. This article focuses on the identification processes behind this expression. Data on the level of identification among European people show that it is both stable and low. Yet the reality is grimmer. This article draws on qualitative research conducted in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom in the late 1990s. The data from this qualitative research shows that Europeans mean many different things when they say that they identify as Europeans. Very seldom do these meanings agree with the researchers' expectations of what it means to identify as European.