Introduction

Roma are recognised as one of Europe's largest minority ethnic groups, with estimates of more than 10 million Roma residing across the European Union (EU) (Council of Europe, 2011a; European Commission, 2012), with around 8 million thought to reside within Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries (Tanner, 2005; Soros Foundation, 2012). Although the term ‘Roma’ is sometimes contested (see, for example, Kovats, 2001; Matras, 2013), it is now widely used across Europe as a generic descriptor for a diverse range of communities and there is a consensus that Roma remain one of the most socially disadvantaged communities across Europe (Amnesty International, 2011; Bartlett et al, 2011).

Following the Accession of the ten CEE countries in 2004 and 2007, it is suggested that approximately 1.7 million CEE nationals now reside in the UK (Hawkins, 2016), which includes a significant Roma population. The arrival of large numbers of CEE migrants to the UK has been met with political and public debate around the need to curtail migration due to perceived impacts on indigenous labour market opportunities coupled with fears about the demands placed on the welfare system (Cook et al, 2012). There is little doubt, though, that public debates surrounding Roma migrants, within this broader category of CEE migration, has triggered particularly prejudiced reactions and specific attention in the wider anti-immigration rhetoric (Cahn, 2004; Dougherty, 2013; Okely, 2014), resulting in Roma often being framed as ‘benefit tourists’ (Clark and Campbell, 2000; Martin et al, 2017). Although counter-narratives have been offered (Martin et al, 2017), little is known about how Roma actually experience navigating the social security system in the UK, particularly in a situation of increasingly conditional rights for European migrants (Dwyer and Scullion, 2014; O’Brien, 2015).

The aim of this chapter is to begin to explore some of these issues in more detail, providing an important starting point for understanding the multifaceted and overlapping forms of conditionality that impact on Roma. Members of this community can be subject to targeted policies within their home countries, but can also subsequently experience restricted access to welfare in the UK as ‘migrants’ and in their everyday interactions with the increasingly conditional unemployment benefits system (Dwyer et al, 2018).