Brexit Brits Abroad

One of the notable consequences of Brexit has been the rapid rise of transnational campaign groups lobbying for the rights of British citizens living in the EU26. Such political mobilisation of the British population across Europe is unprecedented, although understandable given the challenges that Brexit presents to their lives. However, as Michaela discusses with Jeremy MacClancy (Professor in Anthropology, Oxford Brookes University), political participation by British citizens living in the EU26 through getting involved in local campaigns, in becoming town councillors—an activity that is under threat because of Brexit—is an overlooked dimension that might offer some insights into this contemporary political mobilisation. Through the comparison between the current moment of political mobilisation among Britons across Europe, with these more local articulations of political activism, Jeremy teases out the differences in how these are framed, the scales on which they take place, but also how these link to fund

In this episode Michaela talks over the line with Aoife O’Donoghue, Professor of International Law and Global Governance, Durham University  (https://www.dur.ac.uk/law/staff/display/?id=5868) and Colin Murray, Reader in Public Law at Newcastle University (https://www.ncl.ac.uk/nuls/staff/profile/colinmurray.html#background), about the special relationship between Britain and Ireland and in particular, the Common Travel Area. The CTA has meant that Irish citizens living the UK and British citizens living in Ireland have been treated not as foreigners or aliens, but as equivalent to citizens of each those states. But this has been a nebulous arrangement that for various reasons has always operated informally. And yet, the future rights of these citizens in light of Brexit rest upon this arrangement. As they discuss, this has led to a scrabble to get the CTA updated. With Brexit fast-approaching, and continuing political uncertainty in Westminster, the race is on to get legislation in place to secure in law the

In this episode, Michaela is joined on the line by Christine Barwick (Centre Marc Bloch, Humboldt University) to talk about her and her students’ recent research with British citizens living in Berlin. They focus in particular on how working with British citizens who live in cities opens up our understandings of who the British citizens are who live in Europe, how lifestyle interplays with other reasons for migration, and the absence of a British community. And as they discuss, Brexit has further strengthened their sense of identification with Berlin.

Returning to a familiar theme of European and Europeanness, Michaela talks with guest Hannah White. Over the past two years, Hannah has been cycling around Europe on her bike, talking with ordinary Europeans about what being European means to them for the her project Outsider: journey through a changing Europe (URL: https://www.theoutsider.blog/about). We talk about how this has challenged her taken for granted understanding of European belonging. From Europe as a political project, to understanding it as a political and social identity that intersects also with up local and national politics of belonging, it emerges as a complex identification that means many things too many people. And while Brexit may have challenged this sense of what it means to be European among British citizens, from the Greek debt crisis to the rise of far right political parties in several European countries, Hannah reminds us that there is a need to understand how the questions of what it means to be European is also shaped by other

In this episode Michaela is joined by Helen McCarthy, a researcher at MPI Europe and PhD candidate at Middlesex University. Recorded in the week that Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, they revisit Helen’s work about how Spanish officials were preparing for Brexit’s impacts on British retirees, draw out the different conditions and circumstances that support British lives in Spain and consider how these variously may shape the outcomes of Brexit—including in the case of No Deal—for individuals. We talk pensions, healthcare and taxation … and consider all the different actors and stakeholders caught up in securing the post-Brexit lives of Britons in Spain (and indeed, elsewhere). But we also talk about the parallel case of Spanish nationals living in the UK, the topic of Helen’s PhD research. Her reflections on the role of the European debt crisis in bringing about (some) migration to Britain and differentiation within this population, which includes naturalised Spanish citizens originating in Latin America,

In this conversation with Sean Rowlands, who was born and brought up abroad, moving to London to attend university, Michaela discusses the family ties between Britain and the EU. Through his perspective drawn from moving between countries, living in the EU and beyond, they discuss Brexit and what this means for his family. They discuss how his sense of belonging is informed by his relationship to people and places in Britain and beyond, zoning in on questions of Britishness and Europeanness. And through reflections on global migration regimes, they question what work Brexit may and may not do to disrupt the privileges of being British within hierarchies of mobility.

In this episode Michaela reflects back on the Brexit Brits Abroad research project, drawing out some of its key take away messages. She talks through the different factors that shape how Brexit has been experienced by British citizens living in the EU-27: the terms and conditions on which their lives rest, their place of residence, their local and international connections and relationship, their social position, and their physical and mental health. As she explains, the case of what Brexit means for British citizens living in the EU-27 offers a lens onto the values and assumptions that underpin legal frameworks guiding migration and free movement and into broader questions about who counts as European and who is a citizen.

Michaela welcomes back Aliyyah Ahad (Migration Policy Institute Europe) to talk about her recent Policy Briefing about the issues Brexit presents for British families living in the EU-27. This is a population about which there is very limited knowledge and understanding. She starts by explaining the significant evidence gaps in understanding the scale of this demographic, and the diversity of family arrangements that exist among them—including those in relationships with third-country nations; separated and divorced families with complex child-care relations; those in same-sex relationships. Deal or no deal, Brexit presents a range of issues that will likely impact disproportionately on some families and children, because of what this means in respect to residency, livelihoods, and transnational care arrangements as well as how this changes the transnational legal structures which support people’s lives.

Michaela is joined by Djordje Sredanovic, Newton International Fellow at the University of Manchester. They talk about his recent research into the impact of Brexit on the experiences and orientations toward naturalisation in particular, the meaning and significance placed on this by British citizens living in Belgium. He describes how discussions over whether to apply for naturalisation are complex, at once pragmatic and caught up in deeper questions about Britishness, Europeanness, identity and belonging.

This week, we’re bringing you something a bit different. Recorded at the recent British Sociological Association conference, Michaela and Chantelle present their recently published work on what Brexit means to British People of Colour living in the EU27. This shifts focus to their experiences of Brexit and how this is located in personal histories of institutional, structural, state and everyday racism. As they argue, placing these narratives centerstage deepens understandings of the relationship between Brexit and racism, permitting a view into how it is caught up in longer histories of racism in Britain but also in Europe.

We’re thinking about Ireland again this week in an episode devoted to thinking about Free movement between Britain and Ireland and the long history of migration between the two countries. Ever wondered what the Common Travel Area actually is? Michaela talks to Professor Imelda Maher (https://people.ucd.ie/imelda.maher) about what it is (and isn’t), and what Brexit might mean for the future of this agreement. But what does this long relationship mean for migrations between to the two, lives, identities, and a sense of belonging? From her conversation with Professor Mary Gilmartin (https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/mary-gilmartin) about the lesser-known story of the second largest minority population in Ireland, British citizens to her conversation with Hannah, a dual Irish-British citizen, Michaela explores questions of citizenship, identity and belonging through the lens of the British-Irish relationship.

In this episode, we talk about migration, daily life and Brexit for Britons living in the EU27 who have complex health and social care needs. In conversation with Roy and Jayne in France, and Millie in Cyprus, Michaela challenges common sense understandings about the ease with which people can pick up their lives and settle elsewhere in the world. She discusses the challenges that migration presents for the parents of children with special needs, and what Brexit and the loss of Freedom of Movement might mean for people in these circumstances. And she highlights how uncertainties about future rights and access to health and social care impact on the lives of these families and individuals.

We’re back with an episode that let’s you hear what Brexit means to British citizens living in Europe in their own words. Michaela is in conversation with Terri Beswick, who runs her own consultancy company focussed on peace and conflict in foreign policy. They talk about how the moment that Terri realised that there was a different life on offer in Europe, her experiences of living and working in other EU countries. She makes clear that she has built her around Europe and the ability to move freely; she talks about how this flexibility has been crucial to her being flexible and adaptable in the changing economic circumstances of Europe. And then Brexit came along … take a listen to find out how she makes sense of Brexit and its impacts on her life.

What comes to mind when you think of being European? This is one of the questions that comes up time and again in our interviews for the Brexit Brits Abroad project. It probably doesn’t surprise you that there are range of different answers. In this episode, Michaela offers some insights into what it means to people—from rights and a set of common values to an identity and a sense of belonging—drawing from her interviews with Britons living in the EU-27. And she speaks to Roger Casale, the founder of New Europeans(https://neweuropeans.net), the civil organisation championing Freedom of Movement and EU citizenship, about Europe in the everyday, Freedom of Movement as a misnomer, and the prospects for a European citizenship not contingent on nationality.  To find out more about New Europeans' EU Green Card campaign visit https://neweuropeans.net/article/2628/european-green-card-proposed-solution.  

If you have been listening to us for a while, you may have noticed our perennial preoccupation with the question of what’s the British in British migration and as luck would have it, there is a new book that takes this question as a starting point. In this episode Professor Pauline Leonard (University of Southampton), one of the leading sociologists working in this field of research, and the co-editor of the new book British Migrationjoins Karen and Michaela in troubling the orthodoxies in how we understand the British citizens living abroad. Painting a multi-faceted picture of British migrants living all over the world, we talk about the multi-faceted ways in which Britishness is made and remade among its emigrants, reflect on who does and does not step forward into the space of this research (and how we might as researchers attend to this), and the importance of understanding emigration in the making of Britain. *And yes, in my head is the tune of the Tina Turner’s ‘What’s love got to do with it?’ is playin

In this episode, Michaela Benson and Karen O’Reilly talk with Sophie. Brought up in Belgium, attending one of the European Schools, Sophie reflects on being educated to be a European citizen. Brexit has made people question taken-for-granted identities, and while what it means to be British has taken centerstage in public debates, for many of those taking part in our research this exists alongside questions of what it means to be European. For some people, this is very deeply felt, revealing that being European extends beyond its rights basis, shaping identities and supported by value systems. Brexit then, is experienced as a fundamental challenge to ways of being and belonging as they find that their identifications as British and European are made incompatible.

Hosted by Chantelle Lewis, in this episode Michaela is in the hotseat the project team ask her their burning questions about Brexit and the project. Recorded before Christmas, Michaela reflects on the current state of play in respect to what Brexit means for British citizens living in Europe; how the project sits within the wider context of Britain as an emigration nation; and the future of social science research on Brexit.

In our first episode of 2019, the project reflect back on the lessons learned from working on the project over the last year. Take a listen to us as we get a few things off our chest (and as Michaela gets on her soapbox about the pervasive stereotypes of British people living in Europe). From talking history and Britain’s relationship with Europe, to the mistrust of experts and how to do research on Brexit, listen to us talk about our year in the life researching Brexit and what it means to Britons living in Europe.

Brexit has made many people pause to reflect on what it means to be British at this point in time. This is prominent theme in the interviews we have conducted with Britons living in the EU-27. In this episode, the project team reflect further on these conversations about Brexit, Britishness and belonging, highlighting how these reveal people’s changing relationship with the place they were born, how this relates to their feelings about the places they now live, and their sense of themselves as British. As Britons across the EU-27 narrate losing their sense of belonging, being told that they are traitors for leaving Britain, they offer profound reflections on the role of national identity within citizenship, identity and belonging in contemporary Europe.

This episode focusses on narrative and storytelling, focussing on the question of how we do justice to the what people have told us in the way we write and communicate the findings of the project. We focus on the importance, for us, of locating accounts of Brexit within the context of people’s lives, a concern that is at once about the ethics and politics of representation. As we discuss, these reflections are all the more important on a project that has used multiple methods, where people have written their own narratives, and provided alternative, creative accounts of their lives. And in closing the episode, we discuss why narrative and storytelling are important for qualitative research.