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.
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578 articles
Irish enough: changing narratives of citizenship and national identity in the context of Brexit
This paper is a preliminary investigation of Irish identity and citizenship in the aftermath of the decision of the UK to leave the European Union. It identifies three significant impacts:
Is Employer Sponsorship a Good Way to Manage Labour Migration? Implications for Post-Brexit Migration Policies
This paper examines the implications of labour migration models that rely on employer sponsorship. According to UK government proposals, long-term migration into high-skilled jobs after Brexit will require workers to be sponsored by employers…
Islamophobia as racialised biopolitics in the United Kingdom
This article provides a Foucauldian perspective on the racialised biopolitics of Islamophobia in the global north. It is argued that a pervasive…
It's all about the Flex: Preference, Flexibility and Power in the Employment of EU Migrants in Low-Skilled Sectors
In the last ten years, EU migrants have come to play an important role in the UK labour force. They have become increasingly present in low-skilled occupations, where the largest proportional increase has been migration from Eastern and Central European countries.
Justice in Automated Administration
Public administration has, for some time now, been undergoing a digital transformation. Part of this change is the replacement of human public officials with automated decision-making systems. Beyond its immediate social and political significance…
Key Ideas on Mobility and Social Security after Brexit
This article provides a general understanding of the main aspects of mobility (no longer referred to as free movement) and social security coordination, in the Brexit international agreements that govern the relationship of the EU with the United Kingdom: the Withdrawal Agreement (WA)…
Labour immigration after Brexit: questions and trade-offs in designing a work permit system for EU citizens
This paper examines key questions the UK Government will face if it opts to end free movement and replace it with a work-permit system after Brexit.
Leave or remain? The post-Brexit (im)mobility intentions of Bulgarians in the United Kingdom
In the light of impending Brexit, what factors shape European Union migrants' plans to remain in or leave the UK? Based on an online survey of 360 Bulgarians, an under-researched migrant group in the UK, this study finds that the ones who plan to remain have lived longer in the UK…
Legal integration and the reconfiguration of identifications: material and symbolic effects of Brexit on British nationals in Berlin
Freedom of Movement is at the heart of European citizenship. It provides intra-European migrants with flexibility and dis-incentivizes from acquiring the nationality of another EU country. Through Brexit, British nationals lose their European citizenship and their right to free movement.
Legal uncertainty, distrust and injustice in post-Brexit asylum cooperation
The chapter discusses the injustice generated in the context of cooperation in asylum matters due to the growing distrust towards the United Kingdom (UK). Injustice, here, is framed in relation to mutual trust which is a prerequisite for cooperation.
Let's talk about Brexit: intra-organizational communication, citizenship status, procedural justice, and job insecurity in a context of potential immigration threat
In this study, we investigate the degree to which procedural justice and Brexit related intra-organizational communication interact with UK-citizenship status in alleviating/fostering job-insecurity. Intra-organizational communication is often negatively associated with job insecurity…
Liminal Lives: Navigating In-Betweenness in the Case of Bulgarian and Italian Migrants in Brexiting Britain
The UK's decision to leave the EU illustrates some of the tensions embedded in European integration, enabling us to examine how nationalism and cosmopolitanism operate simultaneously, thus reinforcing each other. Furthermore…
Local electoral rights for non-French residents? A case-study analysis of British candidates and councillors in French municipal elections
The French Constitution restricts local electoral rights to French nationals and EU citizens. Third country nationals have long been excluded from suffrage as France has maintained a stronghold on nationality and republican values.
Locating Brexit in the Pragmatics of Race, Citizenship and Empire
The UK referendum on continued membership of the European Union (EU), which produced a victory for the leave campaign, was less a debate on the pros and cons of membership than a proxy for discussions about race and migration, specifically, who belonged and had rights (or should have rights)…
Loss and Assimilation: Lived Experiences of Brexit for British Citizens Living in Luxembourg
Inconsistent political realities are associated with mental health issues such as hopelessness, anxiety, and depression. The psychological impact of Brexit is clearly an important and timely issue, but hitherto has been understudied.
Lost in the noise? Narrative (re)presentation of higher education and research during the Brexit process in the UK
The article investigates how the considerations on higher education and research have been narratively represented in a public domain in the process of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union.
Low-Skilled Employment in a New Immigration Regime: Challenges and Opportunities for Business Transitions
In an era of free movement UK employers have had ready access to a supply of labour from the European Union to fill low-skilled jobs. This has enabled them to adopt business models, operating within broader supply chains…
Making sense of Brexit losses: An in-depth review of macroeconomic studies
Almost all economic assessments of Brexit conclude that there would be significant losses for both the UK and the EU. This paper examines the driving forces behind these results.
Making the Most of the EU Internal Mobility - Romanian Citizens'Migration to the UK in the context of Brexit, a Race Against Time
This exploratory study looks at the post-Brexit Referendum Romanian migration to the UK and analyses it as an outstanding case, in contrast to its overall umbrella EU27 migration, which is declining.
Marching for Europe? Enacting European citizenship as justice during Brexit
This article examines pro-European mobilisation in the United Kingdom following the European Union (EU) referendum. It develops a framework that combines Isin's 'acts of citizenship' with Nancy Fraser's three dimensions of justice - redistribution…
Maritime migration, Brexit and the future of European borders anthropological previews
Since the start of this decade external borders of the European Union have increasingly become sites of hardship, uncertainty, danger and death as hundreds of thousands of people every year attempt to enter Europe to escape war and poverty in North and Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
Methodological nationalism and the Northern Ireland blind-spot in ethnic and racial studies
Northern Ireland (NI) has been one of the central issues in Brexit. Yet, it barely featured in the discussions in the run up to the EU Referendum in 2016. This blind-spot regarding NI has been a long-standing feature of social science research on the UK. This article examines the NI blind-spot…
Mice or Horses? British Citizens in the EU 27 after Brexit as "Former EU Citizens"
This contribution examines the situation of British citizens who are living in the EU 27 at the Brexit date; it challenges the assumption that those UK citizens can be treated as third-country nationals (albeit very privileged ones, should a Withdrawal Agreement enter into force). Instead…
Microsimulations of demographic changes in England and Wales under different EU referendum scenarios
We perform stochastic microsimulations of the dynamics of England and Wales population after the British referendum on EU membership, considering different possible outcomes. Employing available survey data, we model the demographics of the region over the next generation, as shaped by births…
Migrant Capitals: Proposing a Multi-Level Spatio-Temporal Analytical Framework
This article explores how migrants utilize and access different forms of capital. Using a Bourdieusian approach to capital, we focus on how migrants' temporal and spatial journeys are shaped by and in turn shape their opportunities to mobilize resources and convert them into capitals.
Migrant Experiences of Conviviality in the Context of Brexit: Polish Migrant Women in Manchester
This paper explores how people live together in different places in the context of Brexit. This issue seems more relevant than ever due to the continued attention being paid to immigration…
Migrant Home Care Workers in the UK: a Scoping Review of Outcomes and Sustainability and Implications in the Context of Brexit
Migrant care workers play a significant role in meeting the escalating demand for social care in the UK. Workforce shortages create opportunities for new migrants to enter the social care workforce.
Migrant labour in London's hospitality: Ethnographic reflections on subjectivity, transiency and collective action after a decade
This paper reflects on the findings and methodology of an ethnographic research study on precarious migrant workers in London's hospitality sector between 2007 and 2011. The research drew from the tradition of Unbounded Ethnography in order to study migrant workers' everyday practices…
Migrant labour in the UK's post-Brexit agri-food system: Ambiguities, contradictions and precarities
Pressure from global retailers to reduce food costs has altered downstream agri-food work regimes, with many food producers having adopted more flexible modes of working and employed migrant labour from lower income countries. Since the expansion of the European Union (EU) in 2004…
Migrants' Role in Enhancing the Economic Development of Host Countries: Empirical Evidence from Europe
This research examines several modellers of immigration flows deployed within the European Union (EU), as well as their economic consequences upon the most targeted ten migrant receiving countries.
Migration and Differential Labour Market Participation: Theoretical Directions, Recurring Themes, Implications of Brexit and Areas for Future Research
Extensive research in a number of disciplines, including economics, social policy, sociology, geography and management have been undertaken relating to migrant participation in the labour market. Given the highly topical nature of migrant employment in Western Europe and the US…
Migration decisions in the face of upheaval: An experimental approach
The analysis of migration under conditions of potential economic and political upheaval is challenging because these undermine the institutional framework that underpins existing migration trajectories. Therefore…
Migration Determinants and Potential Impact of Brexit on Migration from the CEE Countries to the UK
The aim of this study is to identify the determinants of migration from the selected Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries to the UK and to measure the potential effects of Brexit on the migration from these states. The inclusion of CEE countries (Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania…
Migration uncertainty in the context of Brexit: resource conservation tactics
The Brexit referendum has led to uncertainty, which has threatened EU migrants' resources, including their rights to reside, to run a business or access welfare. Cross-national political and legal resources that include citizenship rights can enable migrants' access to health care, pensions…
Migration, Internal Security and the UK's EU Membership
A key part of the debate about the UK's membership of the EU is concern about levels of migration and the impact upon security. This paper assesses how much impact EU membership has on each of these issues, and examines the likely impact of leaving the EU in each of these areas.
Mitigating the hostile environment: the role of the workplace in EU migrant experience of Brexit
The rejection of free movement embodied in the 2016 Referendum vote created tremendous uncertainty regarding the immediate and future legal rights of EU nationals living in the UK. Drawing on interviews with EU staff and management at three universities…