As EU citizens, post-Accession East European migrants in Britain are in many respects advantaged compared to other migrants, in that they are not constrained by travel, work and other legal restrictions. Nevertheless, their European rights and origin have not automatically shielded these migrants from various forms of discrimination. East Europeans are concentrated in the lower strata of the labour market, despite their higher qualifications. They have also been unfavourably presented in the media and public discourse as an economic, social and cultural threat. The economic crisis has only augmented public anxieties about the social and economic implications of this major migration wave to Britain. In other cases of migration, limited opportunities and unfavourable contexts of reception have led migrants to turn to ethnicity and ethnic networks in search for support, companionship, or economic advancement. Despite its benefits, however, ethnicity has also proved to have a range of negative effects, redirecting migrants to other resources for coping with disadvantage. Looking at the experience of East European migrants from different countries, the papers in this panel aim to examine the ethnicised and non-ethnicised discursive and social relational strategies used by these migrants to cope with the difficulties and challenges that confront them in contemporary Britain.