ABSTRACT
This chapter first explains why its detailed analysis of Central and Eastern European nationals’ experiences and positioning in the UK, while it was still a Member State, serves as an illustrative case study to bolster arguments developed throughout the book. It situates Central and Eastern European movers within equality debates in the UK, and addresses their uniquely disadvantaged labour market positioning and widespread public and political racialisation. It then closely analyses key post-accession policies negatively affecting Central and Eastern European movers, including the Worker Registration Scheme, the right-to-reside test, and related hostile policies, drawing out their long-term consequences for Central and Eastern European workers. Next, the chapter explores how Central and Eastern European movers’ experiences of discrimination and racialisation, and their unique positioning within the UK’s hierarchies of privilege, have been overlooked by the British equality discourse, and inadequately addressed through the transposition of the Race Equality Directive and by the Equality Act 2010. Finally, drawing on a detailed content analysis of race discrimination cases within the employment context, the chapter explains how Central and Eastern European workers have faced some unique challenges in asserting their equality rights, reinforced through unsuitable statutory definitions, adjudicators’ discretionary analytical approaches, and practical hurdles.
