This article traces transformations of social and migration policies in Munich under the conditions of EU-european freedom of movement. It asks what role a) the assumption that migration is a threat to the welfare system and b) workfarism play in those transformations. Following the struggles of a family of EU-internal migrants in Munich it shows how social institutions (the Jobcenter, the German government and the European Court of Justice) turn into border guards, how the foreigners’ office becomes a labour activation agency and how this fosters differential zones of inequality and precarisation within the richest city of Germany.