Rebordering Britain & Britons after Brexit
An `undeliberate determinacy'? The changing migration strategies of Polish migrants in the UK in times of Brexit
Abstract
This paper reformulates classical questions regarding the plans and strategies of Polish migrants in the UK-such as decisions to leave or remain in the host country, or be `deliberately indeterminate' about future plans-from a sociologically situated `rights-based' perspective. This approach considers migrants' attitudes towards specific `civic integration' measures in a medium-term time frame, as well as in the new context created by the UK's vote to leave the EU. Based on the quantitative analysis of original survey data, we investigate the factors behind Polish migrants' migration strategies, and we argue that basic socio-economic and demographic factors are inadequate, on their own terms, to explain future migration and civic integration plans. Instead, we find that aspects such as interest in and awareness of one's rights, as well as anxieties about the ability to maintain one's rights in the future are stronger determinants.
You might also be interested in :
The Return of Citizenship? An Empirical Assessment of Legal Integration in Times of Radical Sociolegal Transformation
Intra-EU migrants have traditionally faced few pressures or incentives to formalize their “permanent” residence or to naturalize in their EU host countries. Focusing on the United Kingdom and combining an analysis of secondary administrative data and primary online survey data (N = 1,413)…
EU post-accession Polish migrants trajectories and their settlement practices in Scotland
The presence and the apparent permanence of post-accession EU migrants in the UK is of significant interest to both academics and politicians. Studies have debated whether migration from new accession countries to the UK mark a new type of migration often described as liquid' and open ended'…
Turning citizens into immigrants: state practices of welfare `cancellations' and document retention among EU nationals living in Glasgow
This article examines the everyday experiences of welfare provision among EU migrants living in Glasgow, demonstrating how the process of restricting the rights of EU citizens has occurred well before Brexit.
Policy, office, votes–and integrity. The British Conservative Party, Brexit, and immigration
While Europe’s so-called migration crisis is of fairly recent origin, some of the continent’s centre-right parties have been successfully politicising immigration for at least half a century. But that success and that politicisation can come at a heavy price–for the country, for the party…