Hungarian and Romanian Migrant Workers in the UK: Racism without Racial Difference?

Fox, Jon (2015). Hungarian and Romanian Migrant Workers in the UK: Racism without Racial Difference? [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-851837

Over the past several years, more than a million East Europeans have come to the UK. Most of these migrants have been channelled into low-skilled jobs (despite their higher qualifications). Most of them who stick around until 2011 will also likely tick 'white other' on the UK census form. But does being 'white' provide them any protections against the sorts of racism that previous immigrants to the UK have faced?

The history of migration to the UK and elsewhere suggests that shared 'whiteness' offers few such protections. In many parts of the world, grievances associated with disadvantages are often experienced and described as 'racial' grievances, even when migrant and host nominally share the same 'race'.

This research is thus interested in how, if at all, 'race' has been a factor in these recent migrations. The role of the government and media in disseminating (and legitimating) racialised understandings of migration has already received significant attention. Missing, however, is the perspective of the migrants themselves. This study aims to fill this gap with an in-depth investigation of the migrant perspective by comparing two understudied groups of migrants: Hungarians (representing those who arrived in 2004) and Romanians (representing those who arrived in 2007).

Data description (abstract)

This research examines the ways in which recent East European migration to the UK has been racialised. 48 in-depth face-to-face interviews were carried out with 25 individual Hungarian (among the first of 'A8' migrants to the UK) and 23 individual Romanian (among the second wave of 'A2' migrants to the UK) migrants in Bristol. Focus groups were also conducted with groups of Hungarian migrants (5 groups) and Romanian migrants (5 groups). These were done to understand the main differences in the racialisation of A8 and A2 migration, to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the migrants' experiences of exclusion and marginalisation, and to question the usefulness of the 'colour paradigm' for understanding and investigating racial phenomena. A self-completion follow-up questionnaire was used to also gain demographic data.

Data creators: