Abstract submitted to the IRIS 2026 Conference in September,7th-9th: Unsettling communities: Diversity. Mobility and Displacement in an age of growing authoritarianism.

Racialised European Diaspora: The EU’s DEI Blind Spot, Brexit and Social Diplomacy concept

Recent EU anti‑racism initiatives foreground equality, inclusion, and “unity in diversity,” yet persistent questions remain about whose experiences are legible within EU policy—and whose are rendered peripheral. The EU Anti-Racism Action Plan (2020–2025) and the subsequent strategy (2026–2030) have strengthened commitments to enforcement, partnership-building, and an “external” anti-racism dimension through diplomacy and the European External Action Service (EEAS). However, the diaspora, particularly in the UK, remains weakly integrated into these frameworks, despite facing distinct forms of legal and institutional precarity.

Evidence indicates both scale and disproportionality: studies commissioned by the EU Delegation in the UK estimate that around 800,000 EU nationals in the UK belong to ethnic minority groups; The Independent Monitoring Authority’s survey report that 20% of EU/EEA EFTA citizens experience difficulties accessing their rights, with 37% of those affected from ethnic minority backgrounds.  Subsequent studies commissioned by the EU Delegation indicate that ethnic minority citizens face significant challenges in navigating the EU Settlement Scheme, both in obtaining and utilising their status. As a result, they may find themselves without formal migration status, raising concerns about a potential repeat of the ‘ Windrush Scandal.’

These dynamics raise pressing scholarly questions about the EU’s commitment to inclusion and territorial limits of its equality governance, the interaction between EU/UK anti-racism and migration regimes, and the lived-experience-led mechanisms, such as Black Europeans’ Social Diplomacy concept, for addressing the EU/UK equality blind spots.