Expelling EU Citizens: Restrictions in Access to Social Protection of Mobile EU Citizens and their Meaning for EU Citizenship

In the context of the global economic crisis, many European Member States are reforming their welfare regime. In Belgium, EU citizens have been particularly affected by these reforms as the expulsions of EU citizens from its territory —on the basis that they represent “unreasonable burden on state finances— has gone from 343 in 2010 to 2712 in 2013. In this paper, I focus on those EU citizens who see their freedom of circulation in the EU restricted after claiming for social protection in their country of residence. First, I document the extent of this practice and identify specific profile of EU citizens targeted by this policy using official data. Second, through qualitative fieldwork, I shed light on their resilience strategies and the state reaction to it. Lastly, I conclude by discussing the implications of Belgium’s policy on the ability of EU citizens to exercise EU citizenship rights in the future.