"We Treat Everyone the Same"

This Research Note illustrates the different forms of institutional discrimination informally exercised against EU migrant citizens when claiming social subsistence-type benefits in local German job centres. We can observe recurring patterns of administrative exclusion which go beyond individual instances of discriminatory behaviour. The unwritten rules and everyday practices which shape individual administrators’ claims processing routines often go against what the law or administrative procedures proscribe and create barriers to receiving benefits, regardless of Germany’s manifest legal obligations to EU citizens. Administrative practices of excluding migrant claimants from receiving benefits can be traced to structural constraints and institutional blind spots, such as a performance-oriented management culture or merely superficial diversity policies. Brokers, as cultural translators, can shift such policy outcomes in unexpected ways, enabling access to social benefits and services for otherwise excluded EU migrant citizens, for instance by bridging language gaps, and by clarifying misunderstandings on legal entitlements and obligations when claiming.