Skip to main content
Rebordering Britain & Britons after Brexit

Applying for Settled Status: Ambivalent and reluctant compliance of EU citizens in post-Brexit Scotland

Abstract

This article contributes to scholarship concerning the effects of the UK Referendum on EU membership and Brexit on EU citizen rights in the UK (Botterill, McCollum and Tyrrell, 2018; Burrell and Schweyher, 2019; Gawlewicz and Sotkasiira, 2019; Huber, 2019). The paper focuses on applications for, and meanings of, 'settled status' among Polish nationals living in urban and rural Scotland. In particular we argue that the 'simple' act of application produces diverse responses among Polish nationals, characterised by ambivalent and reluctant compliance, with longer term implications for ontological security and sustainable communities. In the paper we present empirical data from the perspectives of three differently positioned individuals to illustrate the heterogenous experience of Polish nationals in Scotland and to demonstrate how pre-existing vulnerabilities and conditions are compounded by the EU settlement scheme. First, we highlight a view of citizenship as 'social contract' through the vignette of Marek who expresses ambivalence about Brexit and for whom the welfare system serves both as a safety net and a space of the undeserving. Second, we reflect on the complex bureaucratic process of gaining citizenship for a family, through the vignette of Monika. Finally, we consider how form filling is an anxious act of validating oneself and questioning one's belonging to place with longer term effects on ontological insecurity, through the vignette of Weronika. We conclude by offering a set of recommendations for Scottish policy on intercultural communication, integration and sustainable communities that, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, is ever more significant.

You might also be interested in :

Rescaling belonging in “Brexit Britain”: Spatial identities and practices of Polish nationals in Scotland after the UK Referendum on European Union membership
This paper discusses how the 2016 U.K. Referendum on European Union membership has shaped the spatial identities and practices of Polish nationals living in Scotland. On the basis of original qualitative data collected in Edinburgh after the referendum, we make two key arguments. First…
Rethinking “community” relationally: Polish communities in Scotland before and after Brexit
Community is a nebulous, contested concept in geography spanning research on social networks, encounters, mobilities, citizenship and belonging. However, its use as a discursive trope in public, policy and academic work points to continued relevance as an analytical category…
‘Scotland's different’: Narratives of Scotland's distinctiveness in the post-Brexit-vote era
While Scotland has been portrayed as an outlier in the context of Brexit, we know relatively little about how ordinary people in Scotland, including a growing migrant population, make sense of this (political and media) narrative. In order to address this gap…
Stay or go? Roma, Brexit and European freedom of movement
The spectre of Brexit has raised issues of concern for Roma communities living and working in Scotland and other parts of the UK. The effective ending of freedom of movement has produced new uncertainties and insecurities for people living outside their EU countries of origin…

Journal

Scottish Affairs

Authors

Kate Botterill (United Kingdom)
Mariusz Bogacki (United Kingdom)
Kathy Burrell (United Kingdom)
Kathrin Horschelmann (United Kingdom)

Article meta

Country / region covered

Population studied

Year of Publication

Source type

Keywords