Rebordering Britain & Britons after Brexit
Sideways Migration: Being French in London
Abstract
This book examines the relationship between migration and socioeconomic status. In particular, it charts a set of middle-class aspirations that lead people to move to a nearby nation that is similar in wealth and social indicators – a type of horizontal relocation that it terms "sideways migration." It chronicles the experiences of a diverse group of French middle-class citizens who moved to London during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Based on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork over a ten-year period, this book engages at length with their strategies of emplacement through the lens of Pierre Bourdieu's concept of social space. Against a backdrop of heightened anxieties about immigration, the disruptions of the Brexit process and, more recently, a pandemic, it shows how middle-class migration is affected by processes of dislocation and relocation, settling and unsettling, and the search for belonging. This book points to new directions for understanding transnationalism among middle-class migrants through its consideration of the French emigration apparatus and the role of the multisite French nation in the lives of its citizens living abroad. It will be key reading for scholars and students interested in emigration and migration from anthropology, sociology, geography, political science, history, and international studies. © 2025 Deborah Reed-Danahay.
You might also be interested in :
Brexit, liminality, and ambiguities of belonging; French citizens in London
The Brexit process has affected the lives of "middling"mobile Europeans living in the UK, who have experienced uncertainty as their legal status and social position have shifted. Based on ethnographic research during the years 2015-2020 among French citizens living in London…
How Brexit changed migration: French citizens in London from ‘EU movers’ to ‘migrants’
For the French in London, as for other citizens of the European Union, the Brexit process resulted in the end of free movement for EU citizens relocating to the United Kingdom and affected the rights of those already living there.