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Rebordering Britain & Britons after Brexit

Mapping social science research on Brexit and migration

73 articles covering the EU population

“Where are we going to go now?” European Union migrants' experiences of hostility, anxiety, and (non-)belonging during Brexit
This paper examines the impact of the 2016 European Union (EU) referendum and its aftermath from the perspective of European migrants living in Wales. Drawing on interviews conducted with EU nationals in 2016 and 2017…
A Blurred Piece of Jigsaw: On the Status of Jobseekers within the Framework of Directive 2004/38
This article explores the status of jobseeker in Directive 2004/38 that is aimed to simplify and strengthen the right of free movement and residence of all Union citizens. Unlike the categories of economically active and inactive persons…
A Sudden Loss of Rights
This chapter presents the problem of legal uncertainty afflicting second country nationals in the UK and British citizens turning from expats to post-European third country nationals.
Between the devil and the deep blue sea: Vulnerable EU citizens cast adrift in the UK post-Brexit
Both the UK Government and the EU negotiating team have let down vast numbers of EU citizens in the UK. The creation of continuing EU responsibilities in a newly ex-Member State, for EU citizens who exercised their EU free movement rights before withdrawal, is an unprecedented challenge.
Brain drain in higher education: The case of the Southern European countries and Ireland
This book offers a collection of chapters on key consequences, challenges and strategies in the new economic environment that was shaped after the 2008 economic crisis in southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus) and Ireland in higher education (HE).
Brexit & free movement of workers
The essay examines the different workers' movement regimes envisaged after the United Kingdom leaves the EU, highlighting the difficulties and contradictions of UK choice. In the first part, the authors look at the position of EU nationals currently living and working in the UK…
Brexit and Beyond: Transforming Mobility and Immobility
This Guest Editorial introduces a special issue entitled Brexit and Beyond: Transforming Mobility and Immobility. The unfolding story of Brexit provided the backdrop to a series of events, organised in 2018 and 2019…
Brexit and European doctors' decisions to leave the United Kingdom: a qualitative analysis of free-text questionnaire comments
BackgroundQuantitative evidence suggests that Brexit has had a severe and negative impact on European doctors, with many medical staff leaving the UK. This study provides a detailed examination of European doctors' feelings towards Brexit, their intentions to leave the UK…
Brexit and the European National Health Service England Workforce: A Quantitative Analysis of Doctors' Perceived Professional Impact and Intentions to Leave the United Kingdom
Background: Although survey data suggest that Brexit has negatively influenced European doctors' decisions to remain in the United Kingdom, this is the first quantitative study to use multivariate analysis to explore this relationship. Objective:
Brexit and the stratified uses of national and European Union citizenship
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…
Brexit as a Trigger and an Obstacle to Onwards and Return Migration
In this article, using in-depth interviews with EU27 citizens residing in the UK and Britons residing in Belgium, I analyse the role of the Brexit process as both a trigger of and an obstacle to onward and return migration.
Brexit, acculturative stress and mental health among EU citizens in Scotland
The `Brexit' referendum represents a hostile shift in the United Kingdom's acculturative context. With its remain majority and pro-migration political discourse, Scotland appears less hostile than the rest of the United Kingdom.
Brexit, existential anxiety and ontological (in)security
This article explores how the Brexit Referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union has been a source of destabilisation, dread and ontological anxiety. Focusing mainly on British citizens who voted or self-identified as "Remainers", and on EU foreign nationals resident in the UK…
Brexit, immigration and expanded markets of social control
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of EU citizens' exposure to UK immigration practices currently operating on non-EU migrants in the wake of the Brexit referendum.
BREXIT, social and environmental rights: Through the looking glass: Brexit, free movement and the future
This article looks at some of the implications of Brexit for free movement of persons within the European Union, for both UK citizens and those from other EU Member States. It begins by briefly outlining the principle of free movement of persons…
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…
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…
EU citizens in post-Brexit UK: the case for automatic naturalisation
One of the most passionately contested issues in the aftermath of the UK's decision to leave the European Union in the June 2016 referendum concerned the standing of EU citizens residing in British territory. This article addresses this question from the perspective of normative political theory.
EU citizens' rights post Brexit: why direct effect beyond the EU is not enough
Brexit - EU citizens' rights - Direct effect beyond the EU - The Withdrawal Agreement does not protect citizens properly - Copying substantive provisions of EU law and parts of the EU's supranational features, such as direct effect…
EU citizenship and social solidarity
In this article, we seek to place the CJEU’s recent case law on social rights for economically inactive EU citizens within the larger political context of the last couple of years that has been characterized by the increased contestation of the type of mobility underpinning EU citizenship.
EU citizenship and withdrawals from the union: How inevitable is the radical downgrading of rights?
This chapter is about EU citizenship and the eventual withdrawal of Member States from the European Union. It thus does not concern itself with the issue of secessions of territories from the Member States as such, which result in leaving a newly-formed state outside (or inside)…
EU nationals in the UK after Brexit: Political engagement through discursive awareness, reflexivity and (in)action
The United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union has triggered a variety of forms of political engagement among EU nationals living in the UK. Our research, carried out in the North West of England, an area that has received little attention so far…
European Citizenship after Brexit Freedom of Movement and Rights of Residence Introduction
The book aims to explain the problems faced by European citizens in the UK and by UK citizens residing in member states of the European Union (EU) after Brexit. Particular emphasis is laid on freedom of movement and rights relating to residence.
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.
From Mobile Workers to Fellow Citizens and Back Again? The Future Status of EU Citizens in the UK
Growing concerns and hostility towards continuing large-scale flows of immigrants following the two rounds of EU enlargement and high levels of net migration played a major part in the Brexit referendum result for the UK to leave the EU. So too had welfare chauvinism…
Imagining the impossible? fears of deportation and the barriers to obtaining EU Settled Status in the UK
In early 2021, over 5 million European Union (EU) citizens had applied for settled status to secure their right to continue to live, work and study in the United Kingdom (UK) after the country’s withdrawal from the EU (Brexit). In 2018…
Immigration Status Uncertainty and Mental Health-Evidence from Brexit
The decision of the UK to leave the European Union created uncertainty for European citizens resident in the UK for the period 2016-2019. This paper studies the effects of this uncertainty on their mental health. Using data from a large household panel and a difference-in-differences framework…
International Business and Entrepreneurship Implications of Brexit
This paper provides an overview of the international business and entrepreneurship implications of Brexit. Our perspective is preliminary and based on a review of the practitioner, policy and academic literature over the first month following the Brexit vote.
It's all about the Flex: Preference, Flexibility and Power in the Employment of EU Migrants in Low-Skilled Sectors
In the last ten years, EU migrants have come to play an important role in the UK labour force. They have become increasingly present in low-skilled occupations, where the largest proportional increase has been migration from Eastern and Central European countries.
Marching for Europe? Enacting European citizenship as justice during Brexit
This article examines pro-European mobilisation in the United Kingdom following the European Union (EU) referendum. It develops a framework that combines Isin's 'acts of citizenship' with Nancy Fraser's three dimensions of justice - redistribution…
Migration uncertainty in the context of Brexit: resource conservation tactics
The Brexit referendum has led to uncertainty, which has threatened EU migrants' resources, including their rights to reside, to run a business or access welfare. Cross-national political and legal resources that include citizenship rights can enable migrants' access to health care, pensions…
Mitigating the hostile environment: the role of the workplace in EU migrant experience of Brexit
The rejection of free movement embodied in the 2016 Referendum vote created tremendous uncertainty regarding the immediate and future legal rights of EU nationals living in the UK. Drawing on interviews with EU staff and management at three universities…
Movement of Natural Persons in the Agreement for the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union
The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU is an important political and legal challenge. Among the many issues it has raised, those related to mobility and residence of citizens and their families are of utmost importance. Even though UK nationals are no longer Union citizens…
Post-Brexit models and migration policies: Possible citizenship and welfare implications for EU nationals in the UK
Immigration from the European Union (EU) to Britain and the assumption of ‘benefit tourism’ were some of the driving factors behind the Leave vote in the Brexit Referendum. Amid the uncertainty and complexity of Brexit…
Post-Brexit views of European Union doctors on their future in the NHS: a qualitative study
Background/aim Following large-scale surveys suggesting that large proportions of European doctors are considering leaving the National Health Service (NHS) following the Brexit referendum, this was the first qualitative study assessing if, and how, Brexit has affected European Union (EU)…
Reflecting on Brexit: migration myths and what comes next for EU migrants in the UK?
This article considers the potential impact of Brexit on the family and welfare entitlement of EU migrants living in the UK and of UK migrants living in other EU Member States. Whilst the vast majority of those campaigning for the UK to leave the EU (publicly at least)…