Rebordering Britain & Britons after Brexit
The Emotional Geographies of Migration and Brexit: Tales of Unbelonging
Abstract
This article focuses on the emotionality of belonging among European Union (EU) citizens in the context of the United Kingdom's (UK) 2016 referendum and its result in favour of the UK leaving the EU, commonly referred to as Brexit. Drawing from testimonies of EU27 citizens in the UK (mainly mid- to long-term residents) published in a book and on blog and Twitter accounts by the not-for-profit and non-political initiative, the `In Limbo Project', it explores a range of emotions which characterise the affective impact of Brexit and how they underpin two key processes disrupting the sense of belonging of EU citizens: the acquisition of `migrantness' and the non-recognition of the contributions and efforts made to belong. The resulting narratives are characterised by senses of `unbelonging', where processes of social bonding and membership are disrupted and `undone'. These processes are characterised by a lack of intersubjective recognition in the private, legal and communal spheres, with ambivalent impacts on EU citizens' longer-term plans to stay or to leave and wider implications for community relations in a post-Brexit society.
You might also be interested in :
The UK National Health Service's migration infrastructure in times of Brexit and COVID-19: Disjunctures, continuities and innovations
The COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit were separate yet inter-related developments which affected the British National Health Service (NHS).
Going Back, Staying Put, Moving On: Brexit and the Future Imaginaries of Central and Eastern European Young People in Britain
This paper explores the ways in which young people aged 12 to 18 who were born in Central and Eastern European EU countries but now live in the United Kingdom construct their future imaginaries in the context of Brexit. It reports on findings from a large-scale survey…
Talking about Bordering
In the summer of 2019 as the UK was in the midst of heated Brexit debates and Theresa May's minority government clung on to power, Professor Louise Ryan interviewed Professor Nira Yuval-Davis about her recent book Bordering (Yuval-Davis, Wemyss and Cassidy 2019).
Brexit, a Hostile Environment, the EU Settlement Scheme and Rupture in the Migration Projects of Central and Eastern European Migrants in Northern Ireland
This article examines the changing migration projects of Central and Eastern European migrants in Northern Ireland. It sets out the context for settlement scheme applications, linking it to broader hostile environment policies in the UK.