Abstract
AbstractFollowing the expansion of the European Union in 2004 unprecedented numbers of Accession 8 migrants from Central and Eastern Europe entered the UK. These migrants are often concentrated in particular urban neighbourhoods, which are already routinely home to diverse communities and/or characterised by high levels of social deprivation. Using original data from a study in a northern English city, this paper explores the ways in which established communities experience and make sense of the local impact of new migration within their neighbourhoods. The belief that newly arrived migrants are in competition with established communities for finite local jobs and welfare resources is central to the expressed concerns of established communities about the potential for A8 migration to have a localised negative impact.Utilising Ellison's (2000) theoretical insights, the paper argues that established communities’ concerns, rather than being simply an expression of xenophobic intolerance, have their basis in how the expansion of the EU facilitates opportunities for the ‘proactive engagement’ of citizenship status among A8 migrants, whilst often triggering a more ‘defensive engagement’ among members of local host communities.
Highlights
The enlargement of the European Union (EU) in 2004 extended rights to live and work in other EU Member States to nationals of the Accession 8 (A8) countriesi
Some research argues that A8 migration has brought many positive gains, using new data from a study in a northern city alongside wider available literature, this paper presents evidence that many members of the established communities who live alongside A8 migrants, believe that their opportunities have been adversely affected by the arrival of the new migrants
In spite of certain evidence which suggests a disjuncture between established communities’ perceptions and the impact of A8 migration, an exploration of the views of host populations is important because they reflect the concerns of the established residents who participated in our study; concerns that have been more widely acknowledged (TUC, 2007; Amas, 2008; Jurado and Bruzzone, 2008)
Summary
The enlargement of the European Union (EU) in 2004 extended rights to live and work in other EU Member States to nationals of the Accession 8 (A8) countriesi. For A8 migrants, the expansion of the EU opened up possibilities for a diversity of new migratory movements, across a spectrum ranging from permanent residence in another Member State to more fleeting, circulatory and multiple short-term moves (Ryan et al 2009). The latter led some to invoke a ‘turnstile’ rather than a ‘floodgate’ imagery of contemporary A8 migration (Pollard, Latorre, and Sriskandarajah, 2008). As A8 migrants proactively engage with their newly acquired EU citizenship rights to live and work in the UK, they engender a form of defensive citizenship among established communities who often perceive newly arrived A8 migrants as being in direct competition with themselves for certain local jobs and welfare resources
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