Roma EU citizens and the United Kingdom’s EU settlement scheme: Another ‘Windrush scandal’ in the making?

Roma in Europe have long been racialized and marginalized, both in their countries of origin and their adopted home states. But for many Central and Eastern European Roma, European Union (EU) citizenship afforded them the opportunity to at least try to pursue a better life elsewhere, including in the UK. And although the free movement regime, as it was applied in the UK, contained a neoliberal logic that withdrew rights from some economically ‘inactive’ EU citizens, those exclusions were not definitive; individuals could access rights once they met the economic conditions. This situation changed following Brexit and the UK’s decision to require individuals to actively acquire a new status via the so-called EU settlement scheme (EUSS). Drawing on original 2023/24 research, we show how historical marginalization made it particularly difficult for many Roma to successfully navigate the ‘digital by default’ EUSS in order to acquire a ‘settled’ status and, once acquired, use their new ‘digital only’ status in everyday life. Notably, those who were unable to acquire a new status, including many who probably had a legal right to status, risked a definitive loss of rights post-Brexit. We highlight the potential for a repeat of something like the ‘Windrush scandal’, but this time with racialized Roma EU citizens—rather than the Caribbean-origin ‘Windrush generation’—as its victims.