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.
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578 articles
Brexit: human resourcing implications
Purpose Three years on from the Brexit vote, while it remains a central topic for debate in the media, there has been limited discussion about the human resource (HR) implications. The purpose of this paper is to provide theoretical evaluation and informed discussion…
Brexit: New Evidence and Policy Perspectives
The United Kingdom’s prospective exit from the European Union is one of the most significant events in UK political and economic life in a generation. It has the potential to generate profound effects on the UK and Europe for many years to come. Understandably…
Brexit: Potential Migration Wave and Population Gains and Losses in the European Union and the United Kingdom
Now that the United Kingdom voted in favor of exiting from the European Union, a process commonly known as Brexit, there is a possibility that we will witness a tremendous migration wave between the EU and the UK once Brexit is implemented.
Brexit: The economic and political implications for Asia
Often trumpeted as a bastion of modern economic and political integration, the European Union (EU) has played an integral role in the development of the United Kingdom's (UK) economy. However, in recent times, the relationship between the EU and the UK has become increasingly fragile…
Brexit: The Economics of International Disintegration
On June 23, 2016, the United Kingdom held a referendum on its membership in the European Union. Although most of Britain's establishment backed remaining in the European Union, 52 percent of voters disagreed and handed a surprise victory to the “leave” campaign. Brexit…
Brexit: The impact on health and social care and the role of community nurses
Brexit poses seismic challenges for health and social care provision in the United Kingdom concerning the ongoing financial support available to fund health and social care within a post-Brexit economy. Alongside funding issues…
Brexit’s long-run effects on the U.K. economy
What will be the long-run economic effects of the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union—informally known as Brexit? Compared with remaining in the European Union, there will inevitably be higher trade costs with the rest of Europe, which accounts for about half of all U.K. trade.
Britain, 'Brexit' and the Balkans
A British decision to leave the European Union (in what has become known as a potential ‘Brexit’) could have a significant effect on the UK's relationship with the Western Balkans, argues James Ker-Lindsay.
Britain’s Brexit Deal Debacle
The Brexit Deal marks an historic debacle for the United Kingdom. The UK failed to protect is core economic, political, strategic, and legal interests. Economically, while the UK overemphasized, and ultimately sold out, a tiny sector, fishing…
British Culture Wars? Brexit and the Future Politics of Immigration and Ethnic Diversity
We will discuss in turn the divides over immigration and over ethnic diversity, and how they may develop in post-Brexit Britain. We foresee that both will play a role, but while immigration has long been recognised as politically potent…
British immigration policy, depoliticisation and Brexit
This paper seeks to problematise the historical significance of the EU for British governing strategy with reference to immigration policy and the concept of depoliticisation. Situating British governing strategy in terms of the crisis-prone nature of capitalist society…
British migrants in Berlin: negotiating postcolonial melancholia and racialised nationalism in the wake of Brexit
World War II nostalgia in the UK is mired in a postcolonial melancholia that not only fuels Brexit nationalism, but carries implications for how the UK relates to the European Continent.
Britishness Outsourced: State Conduits, Brokers and the British Citizenship Test
This article explores the role of two different types of organisations which act as brokers on behalf of the British state in the citizenship test process. Situating these organisations' emergence within a neoliberal British state characterised by its `dispersal'…
Britishness Reconsidered: Interplay Between Immigration and Nationality Legislation and Policymaking in Twenty-first Century Britain
This paper aims to clarify the dynamic interplay between immigration and nationality legislation and policymaking in post-imperial and pre-Brexit Britain. In 1981 and 2002, the years on which this paper focuses…
Britishness, belonging and citizenship: Experiencing nationality law
Long term resident migrants to the UK, who often possess valuable skills for the economy, still face significant barriers to citizenship. In this important book, Dr Prabhat captures the experiences of those who successfully become British citizens through stories of belonging…
Brokering Britain, Educating Citizens: An Introduction
On the morning of 24 June 2016, the day after the referendum known popularly as Brexit, people in the United Kingdom woke to the news that, albeit by a fairly small majority, the electorate had voted in favour of leaving the European Union. In the days and weeks which followed…
Can Rights Be Frozen?
This chapter focuses on the intension of Union citizenship by asking if rights can be frozen. In particular, we look at the extra-negotiational legal resources available for freezing rights of the people involved. Can rights be frozen? Which rights? Whose rights? Under what conditions? For how long?
Citizen preferences about border arrangements in divided societies: Evidence from a conjoint experiment in Northern Ireland
Border arrangements are often critical to the successful negotiation of peace settlements and the broader politics of post-conflict societies. However, developing an understanding of popular preferences about these arrangements is difficult using traditional surveys. To address this problem…
Citizens’ rights in the post Brexit scenario
This article focuses on the issue of citizens’ rights in the post-Brexit landscape, taking into account the negotiations’ current state of play. At this stage, the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) seem to share a common understanding on citizens’ rights…
Citizenship in segmented societies: Lessons for the EU
European Union citizenship is increasingly relevant in the context of both the refugee crisis and Brexit, yet the issue of citizenship is neither new nor unique to the EU. Using historical, political and sociological perspectives…
Collective Bargaining, Equality and Migration: The Journey to and from Brexit
Bob Simpson has documented the evolution of collective labour laws in the UK over several decades and his scholarship reminds us of their intended and unintended consequences. In the highly politically charged context of the 2016 Brexit vote, this article considers how UK and European Union (EU)…
Colombian-Spanish Migrants in London since the Great Recession: Political Participation and Attitudes amid (Dis)Integration Processes
This article discusses the (dis)integration processes of Colombian-Spanish migrants arriving in London since the 2008 economic crisis, as the background to understand their political attitudes and participation. It is based on data from qualitative-quantitative fieldwork…
Complexities of Polish migrant's citizenship attributions in the context of Brexit and the Scottish Independence
This article focuses on the experiences of Scotland's largest foreign-born minority group, namely Poles, in the run-up to the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 and subsequently the UK's EU Referendum.
Conditional citizens and hostile environments: Polish migrants in pre-Brexit Britain
This article explores recent shifts in the governance of British migration and welfare regimes, considering how far a so called `authoritarian turn' (Tyler, 2018)…
Conditioning Family-life at the Intersection of Migration and Welfare: The Implications for `Brexit Families'
European Freedom of Movement (EFM) was central to the referendum on the UK's membership of the EU. Under a `hard' Brexit scenario, it is expected that EFM between the UK and the EU will cease…
Contesting Brexit Masculinities: Pro-European Activists and Feminist EU Citizenship*
Although Brexit campaigns mobilized discourses of hegemonic masculinity that marginalize women, women seemed to be at the forefront of pro-EU campaigns post-referendum. I explore to what extent pro-EU activists make claims to EU citizenship that contest the masculinities of Brexit.
Cultural Precarity: Migrants' Positionalities in the Light of Current Anti-immigrant Populism in Europe
The Brexit referendum was an earthquake to those in otherwise privileged positions: white intra-European migrants. Poles form the largest among these groups in the UK. As much as they are vulnerable to discrimination as non-British citizens…
Cultural violence in the aftermath of the Brexit Referendum: manifestations of post-racial xeno-racism
This paper makes a novel contribution to the academic debate on Brexit and racism. It emphasizes the need to distinguish different manifestations of post-racial xeno-racism in the aftermath of the Brexit Referendum as either direct, structural or cultural violence.
Diaspora Engagement in Ireland, North and South, in the Shadow of Brexit
This chapter provides an overview of the state of the current diaspora engagement policy in Ireland, North and South. In this new era of Brexit negotiations, emigrants and the diaspora will no doubt want a say in the future of Ireland and Northern Ireland. How might diaspora engagement efforts…
Diaspora Policies, Consular Services and Social Protection for UK Citizens Abroad
Despite having one of the largest diaspora in the world, the United Kingdom peculiarly has no diaspora engagement policy to speak of. Policy, not legal right, underpins consular affairs and social protection policies are extremely limited.
Diasporic media and counterpublics Engaging anti-EU immigration stances in the UK
The article examines three Romanian diasporic publications in the UK, aiming to identify the formation of a diasporic counterpublic in opposition to mainstream anti-EU immigration stances, during and after the 2016 referendum. Drawing upon (critical) discourse analysis…
Discrete Events and Hate Crimes: The Causal Role of the Brexit Referendum
Objective The article contributes to the literature on discrete events and behavioral change among the public by studying the link between the United Kingdom's 2016 “Brexit”referendum and racial and religious hate crime.
Do I deserve to belong? Migrants' perspectives on the debate of deservingness and belonging
The notion of belonging, prominent in social sciences, has been recently used extensively in relation to Central Eastern European migrants in the UK.
Do they need to integrate? The place of EU citizens in the UK and the problem of integration
This article aims to provide empirical evidence against the theory and practice of immigrant integration through the experience of EU citizens in the UK around Brexit. We demonstrate that, in the case of EU citizens, the outcomes of presumably successful “integration” have been achieved while - and…
Economic Fallouts of Labor Force Immigration in Great Britain
The Brexit issue and the subsequent decision of British majority in referendum on Britain's leaving the European Union have changed the labor migration development flows into the country.
Economic turbulence and labour migrants' mobility intentions: Polish migrants in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany 2009-2016
Economists view earnings as a primary driver of migration, both actual and intended. However, studies on the relationship between migration intentions and earnings yield mixed results. We argue that earnings are an important factor…