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Rebordering Britain & Britons after Brexit

Mapping social science research on Brexit and migration

This fully searchable database lists peer-reviewed journal articles on Brexit and migration published in social science journals since May 2015. It will be updated periodically. For our initial review of this body of work see our 2022 article published in Migration Studies From state of the art to new directions in research what Brexit means for migration and migrants.

578 articles

UK higher education and Brexit
This paper explores the threats that Brexit poses for the higher education sector. These threats are:
UK: Large-Scale European Migration and the Challenge to EU Free Movement
Whilst the Europeanisation of migration into the United Kingdom began in the 1990s, intra-European flows reshaped migration patterns, and only became a major political issue following the EU enlargement in 2004.
UK's Membership of the EU: Brexit and the Gains, Losses and Dilemmas for Social Policy Introduction
The United Kingdom has a long history of a fraught relationship with the European Union, a discomfort demonstrated in the 23 June 2016 referendum on the membership of the EU, in which the UK voted to leave with nearly 52 per cent majority vote.
Unaccompanied Migrant Children and the Implications of Brexit
The protection of unaccompanied minors (UAMs) is a moot legal and policy matter both at the European and international levels. The 2015/16 ‘refugee crisis’ has exposed the weaknesses in design and implementation of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS)…
Uncanny Europe and Protective Europeanness: When European Identity Becomes a Queerly Viable Option
Europe has recently become closely associated with LGBTQ rights. It remains unclear, however, what is the role of this association in everyday European imaginations and identifications. Empirical research on European identity hardly ever discusses the role of LGBTQ rights.
Uncertain sunset lives: British migrants facing Brexit in Spain
One of the most concerned groups potentially impacted by the approval of Brexit in 2016 is that of the so-called “Brexpats”. This group of people is composed by at least 784,900 British citizens who are living in the European Union (EU), among which those settling in Spain are the most prominent.
Uncertainties Generated during the Brexit Process among Highly Qualified Spanish Workers
This article aims to analyse the influence of Brexit on the decision to settle or return of these workers. To this end, we conducted a qualitative research through 38 in-depth interviews with Spanish migrants living in the UK some months before the actual exit from the EU.
Uncharted waters: The social and equality impacts of Brexit
This research provides an overview of the potential social impacts of Brexit on individuals and communities in Scotland. It complements economic analyses of Brexit, which tend to focus on impacts on businesses, the economy and GDP.
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…
'Uni-Culti' Myths and Liberal Dreams: Brexit and Austerity from the Perspective of Migrants
This chapter discusses the post-Brexit condition from the perspective of the margin: of an outsider to Britain as well as of Britain’s marginal men, migrants from Poland. It considers anti-immigrant populism and austerity as transnational rather than national phenomena. Thereby…
Union citizens’ rights against their own Member State after Brexit
The treatment by the United Kingdom of Union citizens remaining on its territory after Brexit and conversely that of UK nationals by EU27 Member States on theirs has given rise to much discussion and analysis. By contrast…
Union Citizenship for UK Citizens
With Brexit, UK citizens will lose freedom of movement, and Europeans resident in Britain will lose the protection afforded by Union citizenship. More worrying still, Brexit threatens to unravel the postwar achievements of European integration. The EU must act to ensure that Brexit is a failure.
United Kingdom immigration and emigration of oral and maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) specialists 2000-2020: how might Brexit impact on OMFS?
The United Kingdom left the European Union (EU) in January 2020. As it is unclear how many of the rights of OMFS surgeons to travel and work will remain after the transition period, we have reviewed how these rights have been used in the past.
University students' representations of Europe and self-identification as Europeans: a synthesis of qualitative evidence for future policy formulation
The current European context is characterised by the emergence of socio-political tensions that threaten to derail the cohesion objectives traditionally promoted by the authorities of the European Union. With EU citizenship in the shadow of Brexit…
Unsettled: Brexit and European Union nationals' sense of belonging
This article explores the dynamics of belonging of European Union (EU) nationals living in the United Kingdom (UK) in the context of UK's withdrawal from the EU.
Unsettling Events: Understanding Migrants' Responses to Geopolitical Transformative Episodes through a Life-Course Lens
Migration under the European Union's (EU) Freedom of Movement is constructed as temporary and circular, implying that migrants respond to changing circumstances by returning home or moving elsewhere. This construction underpins predictions of an exodus of EU migrants from the United Kingdom (UK)…
Using diversity to advance multicultural dialogues in higher education
Chetty makes a case for revitalising multiculturalism in higher education through her own teaching and learning. She argues for a culturally sensitive pedagogy that values students’ own history and reflected experiences, highlighting the power of multicultural dialogues.
Welcoming Voices Memory, migration and music
There are many studies of migration that focus on the economic and social impact of immigration, but the effect that migration has on cultural practices is less explored. Working with Lithuanian and Polish communities in Lincolnshire between 2016 and 2018…
What Could Have Been and May Yet Still Be: Brexit, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the Right to Have Rights
This article considers the pervading influence of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union for the UK following Brexit. The UK Government has been clear in its wish that the Charter have no influence in the UK after the UK's withdrawal from the European Union (EU). However…
What does Brexit mean for the UK social care workforce? Perspectives from the recruitment and retention frontline
The UK's departure from the European Union (Brexit) is likely to result in greater immigration and employment restrictions on European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) nationals within the United Kingdom. EU/EEA citizens constitute a significant proportion of the current social care workforce.
What Does Google Trends Tell Us about the Impact of Brexit on the Unemployment Rate in the UK?
Considering the debate related to the potential effects of Brexit on the UK economy, the aim of this paper is to assess the impact of Brexit on the monthly unemployment rate since the vote for the UK leave from the European Union.
What fresh hell? UK policies targeting homeless migrants for deportation after Brexit and Covid-19
Before Covid-19 around a quarter of the UK's rough sleeping population were non-UK nationals, with the proportion rising above half in some metropolitan areas.
What Have I Done to Deserve This?' Young Italian migrants in Britain narrate their reaction to brexit and plans for the future
The aim of this article is to describe the reactions of young Italian migrants in Britain to "Brexit", the 2016 referendum decision for the UK to leave the European Union. Brexit is seen as an historical moment of "rupture…
What will Happen to Race Equality Policy on the Brexit Archipelago? Multi-Level Governance, 'Sunk Costs' and the 'Mischief of Faction'
This article considers how one of the archipelago of contradictions' raised by Brexit is the prospect of unconventional policy change, in so far as it includes - amongst other options - 'returning' to prior conventions that were scaled up from the UK to the EU…
Where Will the British Go? And Why?*
Objective Immigration is a highly salient political issue. We examine the migration preferences of potential emigrants from the United Kingdom to determine whether the migration calculus is primarily economic or political. Methods A conjoint survey experiment was conducted with U.K.
Whither Studies of ‘Post-Soviet’ Migrants in the UK? Key Themes in Current Academic Research
While new migrant groups from the former Soviet Union have started to emerge in the UK, gradually taking shape over the course of the 2000s, researchers have been responding with numerous studies that have introduced these migrants to social scientific scholarship.
Who do we think we are? Citizenship post-Brexit
The Brexit vote is a mirror to an inability of many to accept the unravelling of an exclusionary core of national citizenship through the two new universalisms of (nationality-law-busting) human rights, and an economic science that promotes and secures the right of passage of the homo economicus.
Who Gets to Withdraw the Status?
This chapter determines the extension of Union citizenship by asking: Who gets to withdraw the status of Union citizenship? It is a complex and debated issue. The various options are presented and the anticipated consequences for both the UK and EU states are fleshed out.
Who Had Their Cake and Ate It? Lessons from the UK's Withdrawal Process and its Impact on the Post-Brexit Trade Talks
This Article highlights the legal and procedural restrictions a Member States faces during its withdrawal from the EU and subsequent talks on a future trade relationship by analyzing the unprecedented case of the UK.
Whose Freedom of Movement Is Worth Defending?
As long as the EU continues to present refugees as a problem to be kept at bay, with repeated promises to strengthen its borders against unwanted arrivals…
Will Brexit cause the whole Britain to leave the European Union?
Motivation: The results of the referendum on the UK's membership of the EU are far-reaching, but hard to predict. One of the areas related to UK's withdrawal from the EU is whether it will maintain its integrity. The evolving structure of the UK, persistent trends of separatism in the UK…
With or without EU? The common travel area after Brexit
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) concluded between the UK and Ireland in May 2019 provides one of the few clear legacies of Theresa May's premiership. The Common Travel Area (CTA) between Ireland, the UK, the Channel Islands…
Young Europeans in Brexit Britain: Unsettling identities
Since the 2016 European Union referendum, young European migrants living in Britain have faced growing exposure to social exclusion and insecurities over their future. The Brexit process has not only changed their rights but has also increased their experiences of xenophobia and discrimination.
Youth and Youth Policy in the UK: Post-Brexit View
The paper discusses the current situation of young people and the experience of implementing the youth policy in the post-Brexit UK on the base of a qualitative analysis of the results of in-depth interviewing of senior officials associated with the implementing of the youth policy at the regional…
Youth Mobility Scheme: The Panacea for Ending Free Movement?
Free movement has been at the heart of the Brexit debate, with the government grappling between satisfying public and business demands for restrictive and liberal approaches to immigration respectively. In response the government have advocated temporary migration as a potential solution…
Visual and Oral Narratives of Place and Belonging during Brexit
Using visual and oral approaches, this article presents new findings on the social construction of place and belonging in the aftermath of the UK's Brexit Referendum. Photographs by our British and non-British participants depict everyday life in a seaside town…