When unpaid childcare isn't 'work': EU residency rights have gendered consequences

All EU migrants are not equal when it comes to residency rights, writes Isabel Shutes, Assistant Professor of Social Policy at the LSE. The unpaid labour of women with young children, who take time out of paid work to look after them, is not recognised as “genuine and effective work” in EU case law. Consequently, they are at greater risk of losing their status as ‘workers’ and have to rely on having a partner who is a working EU citizen or being self- sufficient to claim residence rights. Brexit negotiators must avoid putting an extra, gendered burden on these women to prove their right to stay.