The vulnerability of migrants of Roma heritage[1] to insecure, low status, (and sometimes exploitative), employment conditions in the UK has been highlighted by various studies (e.g. Poole & Adamson 2008;, Martin et al 2017, Tileaga et al. 2019). Such patterns of employment have frequently been identified as ‘precarious labour’ across the European Union (e.g. Apostolova et al 2014; Vincze, 2015).Following the 2016 Referendum vote to leave the EU[2], the UK government indicated that providing evidence of consistent, regular working histories would form the basis of applications by EU migrants seeking to remain in the country long-term. (Home Office, 2018, 2020). In doing so, it made evidence of legal, paid employment central to future legitimacy in the country, but those struggling to produce such information face potentially precarious futures (Migration Observatory, 2018). Studies have suggested that, given the specific disadvantages faced by Roma migrants in the UK, the aftermath of ‘Brexit’[3] posed enhanced risks an intensification of the precarity they already experienced.Drawing on interviews conducted in two different locations in 2019, this paper adds experiential detail to their specific experiences of precarious work, located in the ‘no man’s land’ between the 2016 vote and final departure, due at the end of 2020. It assesses the implications for their continued residence, with particular reference to the status of EU migrants post Brexit and the proposed requirements for remaining in the UK. However, it argues that for Roma in the UK, Brexit represents a contemporary, but expanded example of labour precarity, encompassing not only work, but family and future, hopes and aspirations.[1] ‘Migrants of Roma heritage’ is used to recognise the diversity (national, cultural, educational, and linguistic among others) present across the communities who identify as Roma and to avoid the ethnicity based essentialising criticised by many scholars.[2] The 2016 Referendum on EU membership offered UK voters a single question ‘Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union? The 51.6% majority who chose to leave are colloquially referred to as the ‘Leave Vote’, and the process of leaving as ‘Brexit’ [Britain/British-exit][3] ‘Brexit’ is here used to denote the process from the Referendum campaign, through the negotiations, towards final departure.
“so this is not a game” - Brexit as a ‘situation of uncommon precarity’ for migrants of Roma heritage in the UK