Paper short abstract:

How can anthropology help to explain the effect of EU enlargement for UK Roma? This paper examines changes in flows of people, ideas and funds from Europe to one London borough following enlargement. It identifies some local processes that facilitate Roma attaining their legal entitlements.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines how EU enlargement and the subsequent legal change in some Roma's migration status have affected UK policies and service provision, specifically focusing on education services. Before 2004, many Roma in the UK claimed asylum, a status providing limited access to services. After 2004, EU enlargement meant that Roma arriving from A8 countries were economic migrants, with rights of movement, employment, education, retirement, family reunion and welfare.

To explore the effects of this change, the paper uses a theoretical framework based on flows of people, ideas and funds through European institutions, national governments and local service providers.

First, it examines how the change in Roma's status at the EU level has been incorporated into UK national policy, including differences in the use of the term 'Roma' in policy documents. Focusing on education policy, it will then explore the link between these changes and the effects for local-level service provision. By examining different patterns in flows of people, ideas and funds it highlights disjunctures in the interacting changes resulting from EU enlargement, with some increasing Roma inclusion and others creating new barriers.

Interviews, conversations, legal cases and policy documents are used to demonstrate that acquiring legal entitlements is a necessary, but not a sufficient, foundation for Roma migrants' full economic and social participation.