“Go Away, But Don’t Leave Us”: Affective Polarisation and the Precarisation of Romanian Essential Workers in the UK

This chapter uses the lens of affective polarisation to analyse the precarious position of Romanian migrant workers in the UK, particularly as it was highlighted during the first COVID-19 lockdown. It explores their marginalised positions in British society, on account of their occupational, economic and educational status, their nationality, and their contested Whiteness. The chapter argues that Romanian workers are discursively identified as one of the groups responsible for the consequences of both austerity and the neoliberal policies in the UK: shrinking social security, lower benefits, lower pay, the loss of employment opportunities. It argues that this blame shifting is possible because Eastern European workers generally, and Romanian workers in particular, are subjected to two kinds of detrimental discourses. On the one hand, there is the elitist discourse that generally casts the working classes as ‘benefit scroungers’. On the other, their Whiteness and racial identity are contested, thus opening them up to discrimination and exploitation under racial capitalism. Finally, the chapter also analyses the effect of EU neoliberal policies in Romania and the role these have played in pushing migration towards the West, thus positioning the narrative within a European scale.