‘Free’ movers? The post-accession experience of accession-8 migrant workers in the United Kingdom

Abstract:

The United Kingdom is one of the few Member States to have granted immediate labour market access to nationals of the Central and Eastern European accession states ("A8"). This has been accompanied by restrictions on accession migrant worker's social welfare entitlement to prevent any so-called "benefit tourism". Much of the early comment on transitional arrangements has focussed on the European context as opposed to the national. In contrast, this paper analyses the UK approach to migrant workers from the A8. The paper juxtaposes legal analysis of the UK's free movement policy with empirical perspectives taken from in-depth interviews with Polish migrants. In addition to considering the practicalities of the Worker Registration Scheme, the compatibility of the UK rules on accession migrants with Community law more broadly is discussed, in particular as regards workers' entitlement to social benefits and the status of work-seekers.