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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

The making of irregular migration: post-Brexit mmigration policy and risk of labour exploitation
This article highlights the role states have in creating the conditions under which labour exploitation can occur. Specifically…
Labour migration policy post-Brexit: The contested meaning of regulation by old and new actors
The end of free movement of labour from the European Union represents an unprecedented form of re-regulation of the UK labour market. This study explores how old and new actors engage with the sphere of migration…
Nearly two years without the Overseas Registration Exam: what's next for internationally qualified dentists in the UK?
Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, internationally qualified dentists have been negatively impacted. This is due to the suspension of the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) with no confirmation of any future dates. Similarly…
Brexit, uncertainty, and migration decisions
We leverage the British Brexit referendum decision to leave the European Union, to demonstrate how changes in uncertainty about a country's future socio-political condition can impact migratory behaviour. Using official bilateral migration statistics…
Staying connected: low cost airlines in the lives of Polish migrants
This chapter explores the hugely important role that low-cost airline carriers have been playing in the lives of Polish migrants to the United Kingdom (UK) since Poland joined the European Union in 2004. First…
Liberalizing Immigration Policies for the UK Agricultural Sector in the Post-Brexit Era
We investigate the effects of immigration policies on the UK agricultural sector under the new post-Brexit deal through a computable general equilibrium framework.
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…
INTEGRATION POLICY AS A CHALLENGE FOR EUROPEAN COHESION
The article analyses European cohesion from the perspective of integration policies employed by selected European states. The cases of the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Finland constituting the core of the analysis have been chosen due to Brexit (UK), rigidifying of integration practices after 2015…
'He wasn't nice to our country': Children's discourses about the 'glocalized' nature of political events in the Global North
The accessibility of new media combined with emerging patterns of migration are challenging current definitions of community as we see a shift from close-knit face-to-face interactions to more diverse 'glocalized' networks that defines community as a social rather than a spatial dimension.
(Legal) assistance in employment matters to low-paid EU migrant workers in the East of England
This paper explores the everyday lives of low-paid, low-skilled EU migrant workers living in and around Great Yarmouth in the East of England both pre- and post-Brexit. It considers the legal problems they face, especially around employment law, and how those problems may be resolved.
'The jobs all go to foreigners': a critical discourse analysis of the Labour Party's 'left-wing' case for immigration controls
This paper critically examines how senior figures in the UK Labour Party and wider labour movement discussed the topic of immigration in the immediate aftermath of the UK's vote to leave the European Union in 2016. Influenced by the Discourse Historical Approach…
Hong Kongers and the coloniality of British citizenship from decolonisation to 'Global Britain'
In this article, the author advances understandings of the coloniality of British citizenship through the close examination of the status of the people of Hong Kong in Britain's immigration and nationality legislation.
From the state of the art to new directions in researching what Brexit means for migration and migrants
What has Brexit meant for migration and migrants? How has the geopolitical repositioning of the UK in consequence of the UK's exit from the European Union (EU) impacted on the experiences of long-established migrant communities and newly arrived migrants?
The ambiguous lives of 'the other whites': Class and racialisation of Eastern European migrants in the UK
A body of recent literature has examined how migrants from Eastern European countries have been racialised in the UK both pre- and post-Brexit, and has explored the limits of their earlier assumed 'invisibility' owing to their perceived whiteness.
From expat mothers to migrant mothers: narratives of transformations, lost privileges and the ‘quieter’ everyday in Brexit Britain
Focusing on a key dimension of transnational family relations, this article explores the impact of uncertain migratory contexts and citizenship status on migrant mothering. Based on participant observations and semi-structured interviews with French migrant mothers living in Manchester…
GLOBAL FINANCIAL CENTERS AS CHANNELS FOR INTERNATIONAL LABOR MIGRANT INFLOW INTO CITIES OF EUROPE
Europe is the leading region of international immigration (after Asia). Most of immigrants to Europe are directed to its cities, particularly to global ones. One of the typical characteristics of global cities is the availability of global financial centers. In this paper…
Emerging digital citizenship regimes: Pandemic, algorithmic, liquid, metropolitan, and stateless citizenships
This article develops a conceptual taxonomy of five emerging digital citizenship regimes: (i) the globalised and generalisable regime called pandemic citizenship that clarifies how post-COVID-19 datafication processes have amplified the emergence of four intertwined, non-mutually exclusive…
The dilemmas around digital citizenship in a post-Brexit and post-pandemic Northern Ireland: towards an algorithmic nation?
Northern Ireland (NI) has pervasively been a fragile and often disputed city-regional nation. Despite NI's slim majority in favour of remaining in the EU, de facto Brexit, post-pandemic challenges and the Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP) have revealed a dilemma:
Effect of group status and conflict on national identity: Evidence from the Brexit referendum in Northern Ireland
National identity remains one of the most potent forces in global politics, yet surprisingly little is known about processes of national identity formation and change.
Return migration in Spain: a minor topic in the studies on migration
A compendium on scientific production about Spanish return migration is presented with a double goal. In the first place, in order to promote this research topic due to that the return migration in Spain has been scarcely attended in the social analysis in comparison with others migratory phenomena…
The UK National Health Service's migration infrastructure in times of Brexit and COVID-19: Disjunctures, continuities and innovations
The COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit were separate yet inter-related developments which affected the British National Health Service (NHS).
The Future of Irish-UK Relations: Borders and Identities after Brexit: Introduction
It is apparent that the consociational framework established by the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (B/GFA) is under threat, while the UK's withdrawal from the EU poses major challenges for maintaining peace, prosperity and social cohesion in Northern Ireland (NI).
Deporting EU national offenders from the UK after Brexit: Moving from a system that recognises individuals, to one that sees only offenders
Deportation is a core state practice for the management and control of time-served foreign national offenders. Post-Brexit law changes mean that EU national offenders in the UK will become subject to the same deportation rules which apply to non-EU national offenders.
Walking the Tightrope: Private and Public Interests in Conservative Immigration Policy
The Conservatives have long been ideologically split on immigration between the business right and identity right of the party. Appealing to the social right of its voter base, since 2010 immigration policy has been doggedly restrictive. Yet…
Academic Brexodus? Brexit and the dynamics of mobility and immobility among the precarious research workforce
The article contributes to the emerging literature on the intersection of academic mobility and precarity by examining the impact of the 2016 Brexit referendum result on the mobility and immobility projects of migrant academics on temporary contracts.
Beyond exception: the Irish border and the limits of cosmopolitan nationalism
Much debate surrounding Brexit and its implications for the Irish Border has leant on exceptionality, framed within the historical context of the ethnonational dispute between Ireland and the UK…
Scapegoats and Guinea Pigs: Free Movement as a Pathway to Confined Labour Market Citizenship for European Union Accession Migrants in the UK
Migrants in the UK from the Central and Eastern European states that acceded to the European Union in 2004 and 2007 often have close proximity to precarity.
Brexit and invasive species: a case study of the cognitive and affective encoding of ‘abject nature’ in contemporary nationalist ideology
The article addresses the issue of invasive non-native species in Britain and its proximate cultural and political implications. Notably…
Round table: Decolonising Irish history? Possibilities, challenges, practices
The nature of Ireland's place within the British Empire continues to attract significant public and scholarly attention. While historians of Ireland have long accepted the complexity of Ireland's imperial past as both colonised and coloniser…
London Calls? Discrimination of European Job Seekers in the Aftermath of the Brexit Referendum
The central question in this article is whether there was greater discrimination against European applicants in the labor market in those English regions where public opinion was more strongly in favor of Brexit. Using a field experiment conducted immediately after the Brexit Referendum…
Irish Unification After Brexit: Old and New Political Identities?
This article contends that the outcome of the prolonged dispute about the future constitutional status of Northern Ireland (NI) will be shaped by the emerging dynamic between 'old' and 'new' political identities in NI.
In or against the state? Hospitality and hostility in homelessness charities and deportation practice
This paper examines how deportation became a solution to rough sleeping in pre-Brexit England. It identifies relationships between the social regulation of vulnerable and marginalised adults…
British Nationals' Preferences Over Who Gets to Be a Citizen According to a Choice-Based Conjoint Experiment
This article contributes new evidence about the types of immigrants that British nationals would accept as fellow citizens. I analyse the preferences of a large, nationally representative UK sample employing a choice-based conjoint-analysis experiment.
'We Thought We Were Friends!': Franco-British Bilateral Diplomacy and the Shock of Brexit
The British vote to leave the European Union in 2016 shook the Franco-British bilateral relationship (FBBR) to its core and led to unexpected tensions, considering the depth of cooperation between the two countries in many fields, and their geography.
Brexit and precarity: Polish female workers in the UK as second-class citizens?
Immigration was a decisive factor in pre-Brexit-vote debates and it remains one of the most divisive topics globally; therefore, it is worthy of attention. Whilst the British people had an opportunity to have their say on Brexit, EU migrant workers have not.