Skip to main content
Rebordering Britain & Britons after Brexit

An `undeliberate determinacy'? The changing migration strategies of Polish migrants in the UK in times of Brexit

Abstract

This paper reformulates classical questions regarding the plans and strategies of Polish migrants in the UK-such as decisions to leave or remain in the host country, or be `deliberately indeterminate' about future plans-from a sociologically situated `rights-based' perspective. This approach considers migrants' attitudes towards specific `civic integration' measures in a medium-term time frame, as well as in the new context created by the UK's vote to leave the EU. Based on the quantitative analysis of original survey data, we investigate the factors behind Polish migrants' migration strategies, and we argue that basic socio-economic and demographic factors are inadequate, on their own terms, to explain future migration and civic integration plans. Instead, we find that aspects such as interest in and awareness of one's rights, as well as anxieties about the ability to maintain one's rights in the future are stronger determinants.

You might also be interested in :

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.
The Return of Citizenship? An Empirical Assessment of Legal Integration in Times of Radical Sociolegal Transformation
Intra-EU migrants have traditionally faced few pressures or incentives to formalize their “permanent” residence or to naturalize in their EU host countries. Focusing on the United Kingdom and combining an analysis of secondary administrative data and primary online survey data (N = 1,413)…
People as security risks: the framing of migration in the UK security-development nexus
The migration of people across international borders has long been an area of concern for the UK and was a key issue in the public debate surrounding Brexit.
Racialisation of Polish migrants in the UK and in Spain (Catalonia)
The European Union expansion in 2004 resulted in a large-scale migration from less ethnically diverse Poland to multicultural societies. Many Polish migrants have become conscious of being white due to contact with people of colour, and at times…

Journal

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Authors

Derek McGhee (United Kingdom)
Chris Moreh (United Kingdom)
Athina Vlachantoni (United Kingdom)

Article meta

Country / region covered

Population studied

Year of Publication

Source type

Keywords