Rebordering Britain & Britons after Brexit
Brexit and the stratified uses of national and European Union citizenship
Abstract
In this article the authors explore how Brexit changes the social meanings and uses of formal national and EU citizenship and how these meanings and uses are stratified, including by migratory experience, class and age. They do so through in-depth interviews with Britons in Belgium, EU27 citizens ‘by birth’ residing in the UK, and Bangladeshis who naturalised in Italy before moving to the UK. The article highlights the differences both between the three groups and within the groups, along lines of class and age, in the expectations regarding rights linked to citizenship, in the salience of different rights (e.g. freedom of movement, access to welfare, voting), and in the availability of alternative resources to contain the impact of Brexit. The authors argue that the Brexit process not only highlights the value of citizenship as well as the added value of a citizenship of an EU member state, but that it also reveals how the value of citizenships is internally stratified. © The Author(s) 2021.
You might also be interested in :
Expectations, imaginaries and projects of mobility and immobility in the framework of Brexit
Starting from two researches, respectively with citizens since birth of EU27 states citizens in the UK, and with Bangladeshis who have naturalized in Italy and moved to the UK, in this article we explore the ways in which Brexit is redefining the mobility plans between the UK and the rest of the EU.
The tactics and strategies of naturalisation: UK and EU27 citizens in the context of Brexit
Using in-depth interviews with British citizens in Belgium, British citizens in the UK who have explored applying for another citizenship and EU27 citizens in the UK, I explore how Brexit impacts decisions among the three groups on whether to apply for naturalisation.
The vulnerability of in-between statuses: ID and migration controls in the cases of the 'Windrush generation' scandal and Brexit
In this article, I argue that identity documents (ID) and migration statuses are both tools of population control and subjectivities that individuals have an interest in holding. I use documentary analyses and interviews with 31 EU27 citizens in the UK…
Unequal Europe, unequal Brexit: How intra-European inequalities shape the unfolding and framing of Brexit
This article argues that focusing on intra-European inequalities is key to a deeper understanding of the Brexit process, as the impacts of the Brexit process on core-periphery inequalities within Europe and on intra-European migrations remain under-researched topics. Focusing on sociology…