This article contains a partial report on ethnographic research conducted among homeless people who live in the streets outside the system of institutional aid or are staying in a hostel they created themselves. The study, carried out according to the principles of an interpretive orientation, created an opportunity to learn the views of the homeless people. It describes manifestations of engagement on behalf of the hostel in which they live and of a special type of work they undertake—interactive work on one another’s identity, which they refer to as mutual “education”—as well as involvement in the form of “doing nothing.”

In early 2021, over 5 million European Union (EU) citizens had applied for settled status to secure their right to continue to live, work and study in the United Kingdom (UK) after the country’s withdrawal from the EU (Brexit). In 2018, the Home Office launched a Statement of Intent to implement an application process for EU citizens through its EU Settlement Scheme. In the period leading up to Brexit, the UK gov-ernment assured EU migrants that their existing rights under EU law would remain essentially un-changed and that applying for settled status would be smooth, transparent and simple. However, the application process has resulted in some long-term residents failing to obtain settled status, despite providing the required information. Based on qualitative in-depth interviews with 20 EU migrants living in two major metropolitan areas in Northern England, this article discusses the significant barriers which EU citizens face in the application process. This situation particularly affects the most vulnerable EU mi-grants with limited English-language skills and/or low literacy levels as well as those who are digitally excluded. The study contributes to the growing body of research on the consequences of Brexit for vulner-able EU migrants in the UK, focusing specifically on Central and Eastern European migrants.