Mapping social science research on Brexit and migration

London has long been a magnet for migrants, millions of whom have been attracted by its economic, educational and cultural roles as a truly global city.

This chapter focuses on the legal, political, and emotional impact of Brexit on this community. It presents the political and legal environment in which Brexit unfolded, as well as the general impact that this process has had on European Union citizens.

Scrutinising disproportionate media and political attention provided to the ills of the ‘white working-class’, this article examines the framing of their apparent underachievement in education policy and discourse in early post-Brexit vote England.

Events such as Brexit have drawn attention to the precarity of contemporary migrants' settlement rights and reopened the debate on the nature of integration and assimilation processes. Drawing on participant observation and interviews with Italian and Bulgarian migrants in Brexit Britain…

The EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) is a transitory immigration regime rolled out by the Home Office as part of the measures for the UK withdrawing from the EU. More can be said about whether the EUSS can truly be hailed an overall “success”, as per official Government messaging…

Contrary to the idea that 'Brexit means Brexit', the article demonstrates that, in spite of leaving the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, the UK is not automatically seeking to distance itself from the EU's activities and approaches to these policy fields. Using the concepts of disengagement…

On leaving the EU, changes to the UK’s immigration system meant that low-skilled workers from overseas were largely prohibited from entering the UK. Since industries such as agri-food and construction have been dependent on low-skilled migrant labor…

This chapter specifically pursues the question of which employment and social security rights could be invoked by workers migrating between the UK and the remaining EU Member States. It looks at the various legal instruments that could play a role in this, including the Withdrawal Agreement…

This article analyses the political engagement and mobilization of the EU citizens post-Brexit and investigates the extent to which these have led to the creation of an EU diaspora in the UK.

Brexit was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020. The UK is the only member state to have left the EU, after 47 years of having been a part of the union —the EU and its predecessor the European Communities (EC)…

After the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, leavers and remainers have become identified in media, political, intellectual, social scientific and everyday discourses with a contested set of racialised and classed characteristics.

We explore the experiences of Onward Latin American Migrants (OLAs) in London - individuals born in Latin America who live in London and hold EU passports - with the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), a programme developed by the British Government to register EU nationals as part of the Brexit process.

This article offers an analysis of scholarly attempts to make sense of the nexus of race and migration in Brexit-era UK discourse. To illustrate my arguments that intend to challenge and extend existing scholarship, I discuss exemplary snapshots from news articles…

This article addresses the patterns of politicisation of migration and its implications for European integration, investigating the refugee crisis that coincided with the EU referendums in the UK and Denmark. In this framework, we distinguish three patterns of politicisation -domestic…

One of the key questions facing immigration policy-makers is which jobs should be eligible for work visas. This question has dominated discussions about the post-Brexit immigration system, which has focused in particular on the issue of shortages.

With this article we present European Union (EU) and non-EU nurses' lived experiences of feeling 'unwelcomed' and 'unsettled' in a heightened xenophobic environment, in the workplace and elsewhere, following the 2016 EU Referendum.

The profound divisions that emerged around the UK's decision to leave the European Union have stimulated a heated debate on whether the referendum, by exposing intolerance and exacerbating societal tensions, has affected individuals' choices. The UK is one of the most mobile societies in Europe…

Migrants' opportunities for civic and political participation are often restricted by their legal rights. This paper reports on a study which included a survey with 1,120 young people aged 12-18 originally from Central and Eastern Europe, living in the UK…

The state-induced anti-immigration environment and the normalisation of xenophobia in political and media discourses have led to the increased othering of European migrants in the UK through new forms of social stratification, especially since the Brexit Referendum of 2016.

Background: Following Brexit, and the ending of freedom of movement, labour supply crises have emerged in the UK. The paper focuses on the horticultural sector, where these crises have been particularly pronounced, with fears of crops being left to rot in the fields now commonplace.

This paper explores the role of intra-company transfers in the United Kingdom government's labour immigration policy over the last quarter century. It demonstrates their role in determining the number of non-European Economic Area foreigners working in the country and examines the way policy…

Romanian pharmacists tend to relocate to more developed countries, as also happens in other European states. In this study, we have addressed a relevant issue for the national health system in landscaping the migration phenomenon of professional pharmacists.

I review trends in migration to the UK since the Brexit referendum, examining first the sharp fall in net migration from the EU that resulted, and then the recent more dramatic exodus of foreign-born residents during the covid-19 pandemic. I describe the new post-Brexit system…

Background Around 2 million people have migrated from Central and Eastern Europe to the UK since 2004. The UK Central and Eastern European Community (UK-CEE) are disproportionately exposed to the social determinants of poor physical and mental health.

This paper looks at how the British media addressed the issue of migration in Europe between 2015 and 2018, four years when the topic was high on news and political agendas…

This article considers UK government's proposal to re-introduce an accelerated appeals system for detained asylum seekers through resort to legislation. Previously, a similar system, the `Detained Fast Track, was ruled unlawful largely on the basis that it lacked procedural fairness…

Drawing on theories of intergroup conflict and research on political legitimization of prejudice and crime motivated by bias, this study examines the temporal clustering of hate crimes in the aftermath of triggering events in the UK. In addition to domestic and nondomestic terrorist attacks…

Objective: Central and Eastern European (CEE) migrants are a large minority group in the UK who are vulnerable to experiencing mental health problems. However, due to their shared ‘whiteness’ with the majority population, health service disparities may be overlooked.

This article presents findings collected in 2016-2017 from a multi-method ethnographic study of Shirebrook, Derbyshire in the English East Midlands, examining the narratives used by the local authority (LA) and local residents that construct immigration as a social problem. In doing so…

This article reports on a qualitative study with migrant Roma communities in South Yorkshire, UK. The study was undertaken shortly after the 2016 European Union membership referendum in the UK.

In the decade after 2007 eurosceptic actors in the UK successfully deployed securitizing narratives to portray the free movement of people (FMoP) and EU citizens as a threat to the 'ontological security' of national citizens. The ensuing exclusionary policies (up to and beyond the end of FMoP)…

The paper draws on Rosa's three dimensions of the structured phenomenology of time - daily time, longer time, and historical time - as a conceptual lens to analyse the lived experiences and structural framing of temporary farm work in the UK and to address the question:

Immigration was a salient feature of Trump and Brexit campaigns in 2016. In view of this, the study assumes that media coverage of Middle Eastern and African (MEA) migrants in international press might deteriorate. Extracting contents from Bloomberg Businessweek…

There has been exponential growth in research about the impact of Brexit on the plans and projects of EU migrants in the UK. Much research focuses on highly visible migrants, such as the Poles. By focusing on French highly skilled migrants in London, our paper offers the perspectives of those who…

Post-Brexit, UK migration rules treat 'EU- and non-EU citizens equally'. Thus, a much larger number of working migrants have less access to social rights than before.

In the two decades of economic recovery in post-Independence Timor-Leste (2002-2022), there has been a growing interest and commitment, especially among young people, to pursue temporary and circular labour migration.