Social exclusion and discrimination of vulnerable EU migrants Comparative Analysis From the Perspective of Third Sector Organisations in Gothenburg and Copenhagen Master’s Programme

Abstract

After the EU enlargements in 2004 and 2007, an increased migration has occurred within the EU borders. The right to free movement has made mobility possible within the Member States without any resident permit. Migration from Central and Eastern European Member States to Scandinavia as also increased the past years, but with hard registration restrictions of the welfare states, the situation has lead to social problems of the EU migrants. These problems mostly comprise of social exclusion and discrimination towards the migrants. In light of that this study is a comparative analysis of third sector organisations perspectives in Gothenburg and Copenhagen when it comes to social exclusion and discrimination of vulnerable EU migrants. The study aimed to look at how the third sector organisations in Gothenburg and Copenhagen are working towards decreasing social exclusion and discrimination of vulnerable EU migrants, and how are and could the involvement of local, national and EU authorities play a part. The aim was also to reflect upon, from the organisations perspective, how local and national authorities take into consideration the entitlement of social citizenship within the EU, and how that could affect the situation of social exclusion and discrimination of vulnerable EU migrants in Gothenburg and Copenhagen. The form of the research was qualitative semi-structured interviews with six organisations, three in Gothenburg and three in Copenhagen that work with vulnerable EU migrants. The findings showed that the main difference between Gothenburg and Copenhagen when it comes to strategies is due to the diversity within the target group. In Gothenburg, it is more common than in Copenhagen to find families who have migrated, therefore migrating with children. Furthermore, it is more likely to find Roma among the EU migrants in Gothenburg. In Copenhagen, the migrants are mostly non-Roma that have additional social problems to vulnerability, such as mental illnesses and substance abuse. The findings also showed that Gothenburg appears to take more part in the work than Copenhagen both when it comes to decreasing social exclusion and discrimination, and consider social citizenship of EU to a more extent. On a national level, similarities can more clearly be identified, as both national authorities have taken minimum action towards EU migrants. They also appear to consider social citizenship of EU to a minimum extent with obstacles in the registration process of the welfare system.