At the heart or on the margins of the European Commission? Ethnography of a mobile professional group “in transit”

Dominant representations of the European Commission suggest that its staff come from an advantaged, mobile and highly privileged “elite”. Extensive fieldwork, however, suggests that this is not the case. In this contribution, after presenting the evolution of the issues surrounding “qualified” migration and the way in which ethnography enables us to understand the experiences at the heart and on the bangs of the European Commission, we will describe the different activities and practices, between the professional and private spheres, of “young” Europeans, temporarily employed at the European Commission in Brussels, a cosmopolitan institution. Based on a mixed survey that took place between 2010-2015 in Brussels, through direct and/or participant observation, interviews and questionnaires, this contribution will focus on the contribution of the ethnographic approach, on the analysis of the experiences and representations of this staff, taking seriously the impact of the social and geographical origins, but also the age and gender effect, which allow us to understand their trajectories, between territorial anchorage and mobility.