Rebordering Britain & Britons after Brexit
We're All EU Citizens, But Some Are More Migrants Than Others': The impact of Brexit on the Portuguese community residing in the United Kingdom
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the legal, political, and emotional impact of Brexit on this community. It presents the political and legal environment in which Brexit unfolded, as well as the general impact that this process has had on European Union citizens. The political discourse also underlines the role of migrants in the United Kingdom (UK) as ambassadors for Portuguese culture and identity, actively contributing to shaping UK-Portugal relations, as well as their crucial economic role in balancing public debt through their substantial remittances. Given the extremely limited academic literature on the Portuguese community in the UK and Brexit, the chapter relies on media analysis and on a digital ethnographic pilot study conducted by the author in expat Facebook groups. Highly educated Portuguese citizens seem to be more aware and emotionally attached to their free movement rights and to the idea of a cosmopolitan UK, and are therefore more inclined to express feelings of betrayal.
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