Migrant Homelessness in the European Union

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Migrant Homelessness in the
European Union
Nicholas Pleace
University of York

Interdisciplinary
Center 'Sciences
EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE for peace’
Homelessness, Migration and Demographic Change in Europe
Pisa, 16th September 2011

Migrant Homelessness
 Report based on a review conducted for
Homelessness Research in Europe:
Festschrift for Bill Edgar and Joe Doherty
published in late 2010
 Looked at evidence on nature and extent
of migrant homelessness since the 2002
Feantsa Conference

EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCE

Findings
 Evidence was patchy in 2002
 Remained patchy in 2010
 Much of what there was centred on small
scale exercises and counts
 Reports from service providers
 Though there was some larger scale
research and analysis


Broad Pattern 1
 Economic migrants from Eastern EU
member states appearing among people
living rough in North Western Europe
 Concerns raised by policymakers and
service providers, Dublin, Paris, London,
Netherlands


Broad Pattern 2
 Undocumented migrants from Africa,
Eastern Europe, Russian Federation and
South America
 Appearing among people living rough in
North West Europe
 Africans and people from South America
appearing at high rates in Spain
 Africans appearing at high rates in Italy

North Western EU
 Numbers of economic and undocumented
migrants among people living rough
increasing in North West Europe from
before 2002
 Changing composition of population of
people living rough in some major North
West European cities
 But numbers relatively very small


Southern EU
 Numbers of African and other documented
and undocumented migrants among
people living rough substantial
 Data partial, but numerically more
significant that numbers reported in North
Western EU


Forms of migrant homelessness
 Asylum seekers and refugees
 Failed asylum seekers and undocumented
migrants
 Women and children from outside EU who lose
immigration status due to gender based violence
 A10 economic migrants who become homeless
 Ethnic and cultural minorities who are not recent
migrants


Legal status
 Legal status is key
 Illegal presence in a society tends to prohibit
access to much of the welfare system, social
housing and sometimes to at least some
homelessness services
 UK term is „no recourse to public funds‟ – similar
concepts exist elsewhere


Legal status 2
 Legal status is important in another sense
 What a “migrant” is varies between EU member states
 Sometimes children of migrants born in host country
retain a „migrant status‟ in some societies (e.g.
Germany) but are full citizens in others (e.g. UK):
 Migrant homelessness in one context becomes homelessness
among specific cultural/ethnic groups of citizens in another
 Ambiguities exist in relation to Roma, who while an
established population, may have effectively lower legal
status in country of origin and in any EU member state
they migrate to


Variation and Change
 Evidence of “early migration” homelessness that
begins to cease once people become
established in a society (Spain)
 Evidence of uneven experience of
homelessness among some established migrant
groups (UK, differences in homelessness levels
between migrants with Indian and African
origin, thought linked to socioeconomic status)


Conclusions
 Trends do seem to exist
 Multiple forms of migrant homelessness do
seem to exist
 But our data are often little more than partial
 Modes of exit from homelessness not well
understood, to what extent do migrants self-exit
over time, to what extent do they leave host
country and return to point of origin, to what
extent do they become long term homeless?


Difficult questions
 EU member states cannot “import” social problems
and/or housing need from other societies because it is
not financially or politically sustainable
 Nor can the more economically prosperous parts of EU
provide welfare and housing services to large numbers
of citizens
 Finding a humanitarian response that allows decent
treatment of homeless migrants but that works alongside
immigration control is difficult, e.g. operation of
supportive repatriation of Poles and other A8 migrants
from London


Migrant Homelessness in the European Union

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