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
Recognising British Bodies: The Significance of Race and Whiteness in `Post-Racial' Britain
This article examines the significance of race in how nation is articulated by the white middle-classes in `post-racial' Britain. In doing so…
Reflecting on Brexit: migration myths and what comes next for EU migrants in the UK?
This article considers the potential impact of Brexit on the family and welfare entitlement of EU migrants living in the UK and of UK migrants living in other EU Member States. Whilst the vast majority of those campaigning for the UK to leave the EU (publicly at least)…
Reflexive practice in live sociology: lessons from researching Brexit in the lives of British citizens living in the EU-27
This paper brings reflexivity into conversation with debates about positionality and live sociology to argue for reflexivity to be reimagined as an enduring practice that is collaborative, responsible, iterative, engaged, agile and creative.
Refugee fictions: Brexit and the maintenance of borders in the European union
This chapter examines the key cultural issue that defined the 2016 EU referendum: immigration. By analysing short stories concerning the Syrian refugee crisis…
Refugees, Migrants, Windrush and Brexit
Immigration famously emerged as one of the more compelling factors influencing the Brexit vote, and Yasmin Khan looks at how this has played into the wider politics of ethnic diversity in Britain, feeding directly into the divisive ‘Windrush’ scandal of the spring of 2018.
Reinventing the nation: Black and Asian British representations
This chapter explores the reinvention of the nation in black and Asian British writing since the late twentieth century. It situates this task in relation to two contrary influences that continue to influence the imagining of Britain at large:
Remain, Return, or Re-migrate? The (Im)mobility Trajectory of Mainland Chinese Students after Completing Their Education in the UK
The migration of Chinese students to the UK has long been the focus of academic and policy-making attention. However, what happens to their transnational mobility after their education remains understudied.
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…
Residential trajectories of high-skilled transnational migrants in a global city: Exploring the housing choices of Russian and Italian professionals in London
This paper explores the residential trajectories of highly skilled transnational migrants in London. It analyses this under-researched topic by drawing on interview data with 32 mostly Italian and Russian migrants.
Response to `Brexit, Archaeology and Heritage: Reflections and Agendas'
This paper is a response to the Brexit, Heritage and Archaeology workshop, run at UCL in May 2017 and focuses on one of the areas where Brexit will affect heritage research and archaeology in practical terms -immigration.
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…
Rethinking unity in diversity: the potential of European identity in rapidly diversifying societies
Europe seems deeply divided due to recent crises such as the EURO crisis and the Brexit. Moreover, the EU seems unable to entice its citizens and the construction of a shared European identity seems more distant than ever. Yet, in this paper…
Retirement Migration in Europe: A Choice for a Better Life?
This article examines the impact of economic inequalities on the individual choices that North European retirees make when they migrate to Mediterranean countries. It considers a group of retired and early-retired migrants who live permanently in Spain and have limited economic resources.
Return labour migration: an exploratory study of Polish migrant workers from the UK hospitality industry
Incoming labour migration represents an important research field, especially in the context of East-Central Europe, a key source region of labour migrants to the tourism and hospitality sectors of many Western economies, including the UK. Surprisingly…
Reverting trajectories? UKIP's organisational and discursive change after the Brexit referendum
The article focuses on the transformation of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) after the 2016 Brexit referendum. It describes how, after securing its chief political demand…
Revisiting geographies of temporalities: The significance of time in migrant responses to Brexit
In this article, we look at the role of time and temporalities in migrant responses to the result of the 2016 European Union referendum in the United Kingdom, that is, Brexit. Although some attention has been paid to affective “first reactions” to Brexit…
Revisiting the golden age: Brexit, migration and the rhetoric of national identity
The Brexit referendum of 23 June 2016 put in motion a series of complex negotiations resulting in inevitable impasses, some of which have not been resolved even now that the UK is finally out of the EU (most palpably the so-called Northern Irish Protocol). While debates are still ongoing…
Revisiting the Registration of European Citizens' Initiatives: The Evolution of the Legal Admissibility Test
According to the main element of the legal admissibility test of the European Citizens' Initiative ('ECI') set out in Regulation 211/2011…
Rural Brexit? The ambivalent politics of rural community, migration and dependency
This paper investigates the relationship between rural space and Brexit.
Rural policy after Brexit
The impacts of Brexit on rural England will be far reaching, although only the impacts on agriculture tend to be considered by researchers and by government. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities which Brexit presents for renewal of rural policy in England.
Scala Civium: Citizenship Templates Post-Brexit and the European Union's Duty to Protect EU Citizens
Brexit opened the way for the restoration' of British sovereignty and, if an EEA model (or an EEA-like model) is not chosen following the activation of Article 50 TEU, EU citizens settled in the UK will be requested to apply for either UK nationality or permanent leave to remain.
Scotland and Brexit: Citizenship, Identity and Belonging
This article is the editorial introduction to the Special Issue of Scottish Affairs on Scotland and Brexit: Citizenship, Identity and Belonging. Here we outline the key themes and concerns of the Special Issue and contextualise the various contributions that follow.
Scotland and Brexit: Identity, Belonging and Citizenship in uncertain times
This article offers some reflections on the lessons readers might take from the papers in this special issue. These are framed through consideration of three key themes: Scottishness, nationhood and national identity; the search for belonging…
Secular states in a "security community": The migration-terrorism nexus?
This article discusses the disintegration paradox as set against the backdrop of the Brexit referendum and the migration crisis in Europe. In face of an apparent inability effectively to address the challenge of migration, and tested by disintegrative dynamics of which Brexit is just one example…
Seeds of systemic corruption in the post-Brexit UK
Purpose: This study aims to assess the risks of systematisation of corruption in the UK following the Brexit referendum. Design/methodology/approach: The study applies theoretical and empirical findings of criminological, social, psychological…
Senior Citizens and the European Union. A Romanian Perspective
The general goal of this paper is to study senior Romanian citizens' EU attitudes after ten years of European membership, with a special focus on the unsolved tension between the instrumental and symbolic perspectives. By looking at the present context…
Sense making of Brexit for economic citizenship in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland appears to be the keystone for building a sustainable outcome for Brexit for the whole of the United Kingdom and its future relationship with the other Member States of the European Union, especially the Republic of Ireland. The complex constitutional, political, socio-economic…
Separation process of Britain from the EU and its impacts on both sides
EU has a significant role in the world politics and economics. Τhe importance of Brexit is unquestionable for the world countries whether they are parts of the EU or not.
'Shunning' and 'seeking' membership: Rethinking citizenship regimes in the European constitutional space
This article explores parallels between the 'shunning' and 'seeking' of membership of the EU in the context of Brexit and stalled enlargement in south-east Europe, via a focus on the partial, fragmentary and contested governance of citizenship.
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye: the UK's withdrawal package
The United Kingdom left the European Union at midnight CET on 31 January 2020. This article provides a critical analysis of the Withdrawal Package concluded by the Union and the UK. As regards the Withdrawal Agreement designed to facilitate an orderly departure, we analyse the provisions on:
Social policy review 29: Analysis and debate in social policy, 2017
This edition presents an up-to-date and diverse review of the best in social policy scholarship over the past 12 months, from a group of internationally renowned authors. This collection offers a comprehensive discussion of some of the most challenging issues facing social policy today…
Social transnationalism in an unsettled continent
Introducing the collection and the EUCROSS survey on which it is based, the chapter argues for a distinct focus on growing social transnationalism in Europe, despite the widespread gloom about the political fortune of the European Union. Everyday cross-border practices, both physical and virtual…
Spanish nationals' future plans in the context of Brexit
This paper examines the future plans of Spanish nationals resident in the United Kingdom following the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union, commonly referred to as Brexit. Drawing on the literature on migration decision-making…
Speaking for 'our precious Union': unionist claims in the time of Brexit, 2016-20
Brexit and its implications pose the latest challenge to the Union as a political project and to unionism as the doctrine of state legitimacy. How did key unionist actors articulate the legitimizing foundations of the Union in the critical period 2016-20?
State of normality: Transnational migrants' shifting views of state institutions and their obligations
The power of nationalism is evident in how people perceive the world around them as `normal'. A national normality is constituted through education and media but also in everyday encounters with the state or state-regulated institutions in the fields of education, welfare provisions, medical care…
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…