Rebordering Britain & Britons after Brexit
'Uni-Culti' Myths and Liberal Dreams: Brexit and Austerity from the Perspective of Migrants
Abstract
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, the chapter address the neoliberal reforms as well as the newest political context, including the advance of nationalist rhetoric, the ‘war on gender ideology’, as well as anti-immigrant populism in Poland. The chapter uses the case of Polish migrants in Britain to critically discuss how the interest in the return of migrants is interwoven with neoliberal as well as culturalist logics. These two logics represent migrants either as rational economic agents or passive victims of anti-immigrant populism. Both perspectives underestimate the dynamics of migrants’ aspirations as well as the complexity of their embeddedness in multiple locations. The lesson learnt from studying Polish migrants’ aspirations is a new perspective on the nexus of anti-immigration populism and austerity in Europe.
You might also be interested in :
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…
State of normality: Transnational migrants' shifting views of state institutions and their obligations
The power of nationalism is evident in how people perceive the world around them as `normal'. A national normality is constituted through education and media but also in everyday encounters with the state or state-regulated institutions in the fields of education, welfare provisions, medical care…