This short paper summarises recent developments in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union concerning the rights to residency and equal treatment of economically inactive migrant Union citizens. Rulings such as Dano and Alimanovic have signalled a hardening of judicial attitudes, retreating from some of the more generous case law delivered by the Court in the past. That change perhaps plays to broader political concerns about the free movement of Union citizens in certain Member States – not least the United Kingdom, where such issues are playing a prominent role in the public debate about whether or not to remain a Member State of the European Union.
