And then came Brexit: Experiences and future plans of young EU migrants in the London region

Abstract

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, London has already become a "Eurocity": a magnet for young people, both highly educated and less educated, from all over Europe who, especially since the turn of the millennium, have flocked to the city and its wider region to work, study, and play. Now, these erstwhile open-ended migration trajectories have been potentially disrupted by a referendum result that few anticipated, and whose consequential results are still unclear. The main theoretical props for our analysis are the notions of "liquid migration," "tactics of belonging," "whiteness," "privilege," and "affect." Data are drawn from 60 in-depth interviews with Irish, Italian, and Romanian young-adult students and higher and lower skilled workers, carried out in late 2015 and early 2016, plus 27 reinterviews carried out in late 2016, post-Brexit. Results indicate participants' profound and generally negative reaction to Brexit and, as a consequence, a diversity of uncertainties and of plans over their future mobility: either to stay put using "tactics of belonging," or to return home earlier than planned, or to move on to another country. Finally, we find evidence that new hierarchies and boundaries are drawn between intra-European Union migrants as a result of Brexit. (Engbersen & Snel, 2013). We find these constitutive elements of liquid migration attractive for our study of contemporary youth migration within Europe, although some of our findings suggest that flexibility, openness to opportunities, and the search for security are more realistic characteristics of migrant motivations and behaviour than "intentional unpredictability."In the literature on youth life-course transitions, two concepts are important for our analysis in this paper. On the one hand, the "inclination to constant change" referred to in Bauman's quote above is advanced by Worth's (2009) notion of youth and young-adulthood as a continuous process of "becoming": we see this as more relevant and appropriate to our analysis than the traditional practice of agedefined life stages. On the other hand, the reality of sudden changes due to "fragility and vulnerability" (Bauman again) is nicely highlighted in the term "rupture" (Hörschelmann, 2011). Taken together, the notions of "rupture" and "becomings," combined with the framework of liquid migration, constitute a useful conceptual toolkit for understanding the social and spatial mobilities of young European Union (EU) citizens, both before and after the referendum of June 23, 2016, which saw 51.9% vote "leave" and 48.1% "remain."According to Bauman (2000, p. x), the key to the puzzle of liquid modernity is the premise that the "liquidity versus solidity conundrum"is not a dichotomy but that both conditions should be seen and treated as a couple "lock...

EU Children in Brexit Britain: Re‐Negotiating Belonging in Nationalist Times

“…As the emerging literature on the effects of Brexit on various groups of migrants has started to show (Guma and Jones, ; Lulle et al., ,b; Ranta and Nancheva, ; Rzepnikowska, ) for the free‐mover parents, Brexit resulted in a loss of security and sense of control over their lives, which affects their wellbeing as well as their current home‐making practices. The parents we interviewed had chosen the UK as their home, several stating its distinctive and now disappearing multiculturalist and pluralist stance as a pull factor, and were busy investing in a variety of home‐making practices when the Brexit campaign started.…”

“…These families were chosen purposefully and initially accessed through personal contacts and subsequently through snowballing. We recruited families with children aged from seven to 17 with at least one Italian parent, thus belonging to the more privileged group of the “old” EU migrants (Lulle et al., ,b) and residing in the Midlands region. This was to focus on established resident families, that is, those who had been in the UK for at least 10 years, and who lived outside of the more researched cosmopolitan London region (Lulle et al., ,b).…”

“…Contrary to Goodhart's simplistic portrayal of them as lacking any ties and attachments, free‐movers typically have stayed quite connected to their places of origin with which they maintain strong transnational connections, while at the same time re‐rooting in the sites of emplacement. Moreover, the kind of “liquid migration” which seems to concern both the public and policymakers, might apply only to young EU migrants (Lulle et al., ,b). In fact, as both Favell () and Ryan and Mulholland () conclude, a “super‐mobile” lifestyle might only be possible at particular stages of one's life course.…”

“…All the mothers described Brexit as a “rupture” (Lulle et al., ,b). Franca recalls the moment when she realised that things had changed for her and her family:

For me something changed.

…”

“…Emerging literature on the effects of Brexit is starting to document how Brexit is affecting the sense of security of many migrants (Guma and Jones, ; Lulle et al., ,b; Miller, ; Rzepnikowska, ). Such studies have focused particularly on those in already vulnerable positions who fear losing their already precarious rights.…”