Governing Poor EU Migrants under European Law: Inequality, Illegality and Expulsion

Abstract

Since the start of the European integration project economic activity was – and often still is – the Holy Grail for mobile Europeans. With the arrival of Union citizenship, rights to move, reside and to be treated equally were extended to all Union citizens. The right of residence is not conditional however: Union citizens who do not perform ‘real and genuine’ economic activities are expected to have sufficient resources not to become a burden on the social assistance system. The Court of Justice has originally taken an active approach in its case law by qualifying these conditions and expanding the welfare rights of Union citizens in their host Member State – including the economically ‘inactive’ – but has arguably taken a more conservative approach in recent years. This panel investigates how this contested judicial development actually plays out on the ground – ie in the implementation at the Member State level – and what this means for the future of free movement and the European welfare state. For this purpose, the panel first takes up the empirical challenge by asking how Member States actually deal with European law when dealing with ‘poor’ EU citizens on the ground. The first two contributions to the panel discuss, respectively, the legal concept of being an ‘unreasonable burden’ in a comparative context and the condition of being homeless in another Member State. This paves the way for the second part of the panel, which discusses the normative implications of the current (legal and political) situation. In a European context of mobility but rising inequalities, is the Court of Justice the actor to bring about equality through a non-discrimination agenda or should we leave to the political sphere? Or should we take more radical step and move towards a post-Marshallian EU social citizenship?

Title	Details
Imagine: European Union Social Citizenship and Post-Marshallian Rights and Duties	View Paper Details
EU Migrants and the 'Unreasonable Burden': How Member States Deal with ECJ Case Law on Equal Treatment and Lawful Residence on the Ground	View Paper Details
In Search of the Law: Governing Homeless EU Citizens in a State of Legal Ambiguity	View Paper Details
The Futility of Judicialising Transnational Welfare	View Paper Details