"Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it". - George Bernard Shaw

This year, a study on the impact of the Erasmus mobility programme revealed that there are now over one million Erasmus babies roaming Europe and the world – meaning offspring from parents who have met while one or both were on an Erasmus exchange in another country. Considering that about three million students have participated in the programme, one million babies is quite an impressive figure. Of course the term "babies" is not strictly correct, as the Erasmus programme started at the end of the 1980s, and many of these babies are now adults: Erasmus hybrids, so to speak.

These numbers suggest, however, that the programme is having a long-term impact on European citizenship. Erasmus parents made the first step and delved into another "system" – learning about another country's culture, languages etc. – and no doubt came to think about their own national identity in relation to others. Hybrid babies have the chance of being even less confined by the concept of nationality from the start. A cross-border sense of identity probably comes naturally to Erasmus babies and others with parents of different nationalities.

But how do these cultural "hybrids" feel about their identity? The "patriots" that Shaw wrote about – who think that one country is the best in the world because they happen to have been born in it – probably consider that a dual nationality implies feeling "half" one thing and "half" another. In reality, research has shown that people's sense of self is constructed from multiple notions of identity – of which a sense of belonging to a nation is only part of a complex web of issues such as family and social relationships, work, beliefs, values and abilities. So probably most "hybrids" have no problems feeling for example, Slovenian, French, European and global at the same time.

Whatever the case, it is an interesting fact recently reported in a Political Participation and EU Citizenship study, that the younger you are, the more likely you are to consider yourself European. While the results of this study cannot be directly related to the Erasmus programme per se, they nevertheless reveal that growing up in a cross-national or global era, to which Erasmus contributes, naturally impacts on a person's perception of identity and belonging.

Yet it is precisely the uncertainty of knowing what difference the Erasmus programme makes, compared with a full range of other global developments, that may raise questions. Some Eurosceptics have even tried to attack Erasmus as a European Commission propaganda tool. Even though these opinions may be thought by some to be the views of fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists it is clear that there is still a need to explain the tangible benefits of Erasmus mobility.

One irrefutable benefit of Erasmus is that it brings enormous advantages in terms of jobs and careers to individual students. Indeed the findings of the Erasmus impact study show that Erasmus students are half as likely to experience long term unemployment, and five years after graduation, their unemployment rate is 23 % lower than that of their friends who stayed at home. The vast majority of employers also say that they are actively seeking personality traits that are likely to be developed by mobility periods, such as tolerance, confidence, problem-solving skills, and that those with international experience are given greater professional responsibility.

So is there then a real downside to Erasmus? Well, certainly it's not all motherhood and apple pie. There are still too many students who complain that learning agreements are not respected, that credits are not properly recognised, or that funding is not properly adapted to the real costs encountered. But the list of disadvantages cannot possibly compete with the enormous range of proven benefits, which is why the programme looks set to continue for some time to come.

Indeed, EU Member States have pledged to address obstacles to learner mobility and have called for better mechanisms to measure progress. As a result, the first ever mobility scoreboard has been created in an attempt to take stock of country action to facilitate student mobility. While the first scoreboard publication points out that all countries have room for improvement, it is hoped that regular monitoring can help create an environment where learner mobility becomes far more accessible for all.

This is good news for those whose idea of Erasmus comes from the 2002 film, L’Auberge Espagnole, which created a public image of Erasmus in the noughties as a cool programme facilitating opportunities for hip students to hang out together in trendy cities. Who can say if that reality still holds true today? Maybe the Erasmus babies have a view on that?

Authors: Andrea Puhl and David Crosier