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Rebordering Britain & Britons after Brexit

Mapping social science research on Brexit and migration

This fully searchable database lists peer-reviewed journal articles on Brexit and migration published in social science journals since May 2015. It will be updated periodically. For our initial review of this body of work see our 2022 article published in Migration Studies From state of the art to new directions in research what Brexit means for migration and migrants.

646 articles

Brexit, European union law and free movement: Situation of Turkish citizens living in the UK
It is generally accepted by most people that "ambiguity" is one of the fundamental concepts that gained prominence in political, sociological and legal fields as a result of UK's intention to withdraw from the European Union (EU), commonly known as Brexit.
Brexit and the EU internal market
The chapter considers Brexit and the EU internal market. Barnard emphasizes the role that the UK played in creating the EU internal market and examines the view that its four freedoms-free movement of goods, services, capital, and people-are indivisible.
Borders, mobility and belonging in the era of Brexitand Trump
Questions of migration and citizenship are at the heart of global political debate with Brexit and the election of Donald Trump having ripple effects around the world. Providing new insights into the politics of migration and citizenship in the UK and the US…
Brexit as a Trigger and an Obstacle to Onwards and Return Migration
In this article, using in-depth interviews with EU27 citizens residing in the UK and Britons residing in Belgium, I analyse the role of the Brexit process as both a trigger of and an obstacle to onward and return migration.
Brexit and its impact on the use and reimbursement of care by British insured citizens in the Czech Republic
UK leaving the EU will affect not only the Brits but also Czech healthcare providers who will face an intricate question how to provide healthcare services and how to report them to properly receive payment. There is a vital difference between “Withdrawal Agreement Brexit” and “no-deal Brexit”…
Brexit, existential anxiety and ontological (in)security
This article explores how the Brexit Referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union has been a source of destabilisation, dread and ontological anxiety. Focusing mainly on British citizens who voted or self-identified as "Remainers", and on EU foreign nationals resident in the UK…
Brexit and the European National Health Service England Workforce: A Quantitative Analysis of Doctors' Perceived Professional Impact and Intentions to Leave the United Kingdom
Background: Although survey data suggest that Brexit has negatively influenced European doctors' decisions to remain in the United Kingdom, this is the first quantitative study to use multivariate analysis to explore this relationship. Objective:
Brain drain in higher education: The case of the Southern European countries and Ireland
This book offers a collection of chapters on key consequences, challenges and strategies in the new economic environment that was shaped after the 2008 economic crisis in southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus) and Ireland in higher education (HE).
Brexit as postindustrial critique
Anthropologists and other commentators struggle to make sense of pre-COVID-19 political developments in the postindustrial Global North. Various narratives were created to explain these dramatic events and changes, deploying an armory of social science analysis.
Brexit and Its Potential Effects on the German Labour Market
Brexit will undoubtedly affect the German labour market. Many German establishments produce for export to the United Kingdom (UK) and future trade barriers could reduce demand for their products and consequently, the labour demand of those establishments. On the labour supply side…
Brexit, 'Immigration' and Anti-Discrimination
This chapter sketches some of the key political science sources on the European Union (EU) referendum. It shows how these works have in effect uncritically confirmed and reproduced a reading of EU immigration and Brexit uncomfortably close to the one promoted by the United Kingdom (UK)…
Brexit and the Free Movement of Workers: A Plea for National Legal Assertiveness
National judges and Member State governments have an obligation to be assertive about national interests threatened by EU policies, even to the extent of challenging existing doctrines of law, proposing new interpretations, and insisting on the proper division of judicial functions…
Brexit & free movement of workers
The essay examines the different workers' movement regimes envisaged after the United Kingdom leaves the EU, highlighting the difficulties and contradictions of UK choice. In the first part, the authors look at the position of EU nationals currently living and working in the UK…
Brexit implications in Europe and around the world
This paper analyzes Great Britain's exit from the EU, which implies the country's own will to leave the regional block, as well as the multiple effects that this has not only on this country but also in the European Union as a whole, as well as around the world.
Brexit and new autochthonic politics of belonging
The outcome of the 2016 European Union membership referendum is re-shaping the United Kingdom's relationship with the EU through shifting geopolitical positioning(s) and the (re)…
Brexit, immigration and expanded markets of social control
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of EU citizens' exposure to UK immigration practices currently operating on non-EU migrants in the wake of the Brexit referendum.
“I Am an Immigrant”: Fashion, Immigration and Borders in the Contemporary Trans-global Landscape
In the light of the Brexit vote, and the recent surge in nationalism and xenophobia in Europe, this article analyses the condition of the immigrant within fashion to pose the question: how can fashion contribute to an understanding of immigration as a constitutive aspect of contemporary society?
Belonging in Brexit Britain: Central and Eastern European 1.5 generation young people's experiences
In this paper, we examine the experiences of young people born in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) who are part of the 1.5 migrant generation living in “Brexit Britain.” We focus on two key themes: (a) young people's feelings of belonging to Britain, their countries of birth and Europe…
A walk on the ‘rights’ side: EU citizenship reform based on international human rights law
Citizenship, today, is a concept in crisis. At the international level, migration poses significant questions of justice with regard to citizenship as an exclusionary status; while at the regional and domestic level…
Analyzing the Effect of Brexit on the British Construction Industry Using Fuzzy Sets Theory
Policymakers are continually facing new challenges that are exacerbated by the lack of dedicated analysis of how macroeconomic changes affect particular industries. One of the most current examples of this is the effect that Brexit will have on the British construction industry.
“It was the photograph of the little boy”: reflections on the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme in the UK
This article examines the “Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme” (SVPRP) as a specific British response to the “European refugee crisis”. Based on an analysis of media reporting (2014–17) and empirical evidence from agencies and volunteers tasked with implementing the programme…
Between disruptions and connections: “New” European Union migrants in the United Kingdom before and after the Brexit
This paper examines the pre- and post-Brexit experiences and perspectives of migrants from three “new” European Union (EU) countries-Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia-who are living and working or studying in the London area. Deploying the key concepts of power-geometry and relational space…
Abuse or Underuse? Polish Migrants' Narratives of (Not) Claiming Social Benefits in the UK in Times of Brexit
The use of welfare support by EU migrants has dominated media coverage and political debates about EU migration in the UK for several years, regularly featuring claims about the negative effects of the presence of EU migrants on the UK social security system.
And then came Brexit: Experiences and future plans of young EU migrants in the London region
This paper investigates the potential rupture that the United Kingdom's Brexit referendum of June 23, 2016, might bring about in intra-European Union youth mobilities, with a specific focus on the London region. In many respects, and counter-intuitively given the Brexit result…
“Where are we going to go now?” European Union migrants' experiences of hostility, anxiety, and (non-)belonging during Brexit
This paper examines the impact of the 2016 European Union (EU) referendum and its aftermath from the perspective of European migrants living in Wales. Drawing on interviews conducted with EU nationals in 2016 and 2017…
Between Neo-nationalizing Russia and Brexit Britain: The Dilemmas of Russian Migrants’ Political Mobilizations
The article analyses the evolution, during the 2000s and 2010s, of civic engagement and political mobilization of post-Soviet Russian-speaking migrants living in the UK, and highlights the importance of these migrants' inherently transnational position in-between several polities.
Access to Social Protection by Immigrants, Emigrants and Resident Nationals in the UK
Immigration policies and immigrants’ rights to social protection in the UK have evolved dramatically over the past few decades, due to changing immigration flows, the UK’s membership of the European Union (EU) and participation in the European Single Market…
`I Would Never Have Come If We'd Know It Might Be Like This': On the (Un)Intended Consequences of Welfare Governance of EU Roma Migrants in Britain
This paper presents the findings from a small-scale pilot study which explores the experiences of accessing welfare benefits by the migrant Roma European Union (EU) citizens in the UK.
Andrew's white cross, Hussain's red blood Being Scottish Shia in Brexit's no-man's-land
Brexit was a project shaped at the fringes of official politics. Unusually, however, it maintained its fringe-like qualities, including its lack of clarity and ambivalence, even as it took center stage in the political affairs of the country for more than three years. In such a transitional period…
A Blurred Piece of Jigsaw: On the Status of Jobseekers within the Framework of Directive 2004/38
This article explores the status of jobseeker in Directive 2004/38 that is aimed to simplify and strengthen the right of free movement and residence of all Union citizens. Unlike the categories of economically active and inactive persons…
Between the devil and the deep blue sea: Vulnerable EU citizens cast adrift in the UK post-Brexit
Both the UK Government and the EU negotiating team have let down vast numbers of EU citizens in the UK. The creation of continuing EU responsibilities in a newly ex-Member State, for EU citizens who exercised their EU free movement rights before withdrawal, is an unprecedented challenge.
Acts of European citizenship: how Britons resident in France have been negotiating post-Brexit futures
On 23 June 2016 a referendum decided that the United Kingdom (UK) would leave the European Union (EU) - a process popularly termed 'Brexit'. Withdrawal from the EU will revoke Britons of EU citizenship and its associated rights. For many Britons living in France…
'Multicultural lunches': sharing food in post-Brexit south coast of England
Food can be considered a substance that brings people together through its material and sensuous qualities, through affecting shared memories of people and place, and through traditions of hospitality. It is a human necessity with multiple levels of communal understanding, and conviviality.
Anti-Immigrant Hate Crime
The FBI does not provide statistics on hate crimes against immigrants. Media and anecdotal reports indicate that immigrants are frequent victims of hate crime. These crimes range from verbal threats and harassment to lynchings and massacres to beheading and burying aliens (claimed).
A computable general equilibrium analysis of Brexit: Barriers to trade and immigration restrictions
This paper estimates the economic effects of different types of restrictions on trade and immigration in the United Kingdom after Brexit. Regarding trade restrictions, we focus on UK-EU increases in tariffs and non-tariff barriers.
Black men in Britain: An ethnographic portrait of the post-windrush generation
While extensive attention has been paid to black youth, adult black British men are a notable omission in academic literature. This book is the first attempt to understand one of Britain’s hidden populations: The post-Windrush generation…