Gender and free movement: EU migrant women’s access to residence and social rights in the U.K.

Abstract

This article examines the gendered effects of restricting EU migrants' access to rights to residence and to social benefits in relation to work, self-sufficiency and family. It draws on the findings of qualitative research on EU migrant women's access to social benefits in the UK on the basis of residence rights as an EU citizen-worker or family member of an EU citizen-worker. The research included qualitative interviews with providers of advice services on social benefits claims and with EU migrant women in the UK. The findings point to the ways in which the status of the EU citizen-worker is defined and implemented limits women's access to and ability to maintain that status and, at the same time, their reliance on the status of family member of an EU citizen-worker. Both have gendered effects in terms of women's potential exclusion from access to residence and social rights as mobile EU citizens.

Unequal Europe, unequal Brexit: How intra-European inequalities shape the unfolding and framing of Brexit

“…Some studies of intra-European migration show evidence of this process. Shutes and Walker (2018) highlight that EU migrant women working parttime and on zero-hour contracts (usually in 'feminised' sectors like paid care and cleaning) are unable to prove their residency rights and, as a result, to access social benefits in the UK and other European countries (Lafleur and Mescoli, 2018). Focusing on middle-class EU migrant mothers, Bonizzoni (2017) highlights the gendered nature of their professional biographies before they became full-time mothers, which included underemployment and experience in 'feminised' (less lucrative) sectors of the labour market.…”

Lost in Administration: (Re)Producing Precarious Citizenship for Young University-Educated Intra-EU Migrants in Brussels

“…Belgium has sought to control EU citizens' access to its welfare system both by restricting the conditions of social entitlements for those legally residing in its territory and increasingly by restricting access to legal residence (see also Shutes and Walker, 2018). At the same time, state efforts to establish administrative control over EU migrants' residency rights have significantly heightened.…”

“…However, even before the Brexit referendum, the UK, together with countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, has found unique ways to limit EU citizens’ access to rights. These restrictions are assumed to have a direct impact on the employment and wider social precariousness of intra-EU migrants (Alberti, 2016; O’Brien, 2016; Shutes and Walker, 2018). While scholars in the fields of migration, EU law and policy and social policy have drawn attention to the evolving free movement policy framework (e.g.…”

“…While scholars in the fields of migration, EU law and policy and social policy have drawn attention to the evolving free movement policy framework (e.g. Anderson, 2015; Gsir et al, 2016; Lillie and Simola, 2016; O’Brien, 2016), the experiences of intra-EU migrants impacted by the local implementation of these policies have so far, with very few exceptions (Mescoli and Lafleur, 2016; Shutes and Walker, 2018), not been studied.…”

Brexit, ‘Immigration’ and Anti-Discrimination

“…Even more alarmingly, women are less likely to secure their residence due to their irregular work histories and over-representation in unpaid work. (Shutes and Walker 2017). Overall, about a third of those who apply cannot secure permanent residence to retain their right to remain or work in the UK.…”