Paper Titles & Abstracts

Focusing on the experiences of mobile Romanian Roma residing in France and Spain we seek in this paper to highlight the ways in which - notwithstanding EU efforts to promote 'non-discrimination' among EU citizens as free movers and rights bearing residents - various forms of discrimination remain important. We argue that this is rendered possible in EU law itself, but is not set in stone; rather it is negotiated and applied variably in time and space. In a first step we highlight that notwithstanding the common EU framework pertaining to freedom of movement, a restrictive France and permissive Spain have adopted national legal frameworks which differ in terms of the conditionality and rights granted to EU citizens (including mobile Roma). In a second step, however, we note that notwithstanding an ostensibly permissive legal framework, even in Spain rights to mobility and residence for Roma have been increasingly withheld at the local level, particularly as the bubble burst in the housing sector. We speculate in conclusion that the politics of EU citizenship and movement may become increasingly heated in the context of the ongoing economic crisis in the EU and suggest that there may be lessons to be learnt from the lived experiences of the mobile Roma.