Brexit Brits Abroad

This episode brings the project team together again to talk through the experience of doing a sociological research on Brexit while the withdrawal process if unfolding. They reflect on what it is like to do sociology on a topic that is so highly politicised, political and where the stakes are constantly shifting. They talk through their relationship and responsibilities to the people taking part in the research, people for whom this has real life impact. And talk through the challenges of balancing being responsive, engaging with multiple publics, and being attentive to the themes emerging from a large bedrock of original empirical research. In laying bare their experiences, they offer unprecedented insights into the doing of social research on a live and lively issue. 

In this episode, the project team come together to talk through their experiences of working on the project and reflect back on the project design. In particular, we talk about what we mean when we say the project is a piece of qualitative research and the value of this approach to doing social research. In particular, through our reflections on our research into what Brexit means for British citizens living in the EU-27, we highlight how qualitative research aims to develop a rich and complex understanding and the process by which this is achieved from considerations over how to bring diverse accounts into the project to allowing the research encounter to be guided by the perceptions and understandings of those taking part in the research. As we stress, this has meant being flexible in how we do the research, paying attention to what is and isn’t said and thinking about how to encourage and amplify some of the more muted narratives. What does this approach do for us? It helps us to understand what Brexit mea

Freedom of Movement is one of the four fundamental freedoms at the heart of the European project, permitting citizens of European Union member states the freedom to live and work on other European Union countries. It is the legal mechanism that facilitated the migration and settlement of many British citizens currently living in the EU-27, a right that British citizens will no longer enjoy following Brexit. In this episode, Michaela is joined by the rest of the project team to talk about loss of freedom of movement and what it means to those taking part in the research. As they discuss, freedom of movement has significance to people beyond the ability to move freely; reflecting on responses from those taking part in the research, the team discuss its meaning as an individual and social good the loss of which is signifies much more than a lost.

Throughout the series, we have talked the sociology of Brexit and British citizens living in the EU-27. And today is no different. Focusing on the project, Michaela reflects on the challenges of doing research in a context where the rights and entitlements, the legal and political premises that underscore how the people at the heart of the research live their lives, are in flux. With Chantelle Lewis asking the questions, Michaela reflects on the headline findings that are emerging from the project, and to talks through our responsibilities as researchers and how this aligns with a critical sociological perspective. It explains the priorities of this sociological project on Brexit while also reflecting on what the project might offer to the way that we, as sociologists think about researching issues in real time and question who our research includes and excludes.

In her early research with Britons living in Spain, Karen O’Reilly drew attention to the prevalence of a ‘Bad Britain discourse’ in the way they explained their decision to leave the UK and settle in Spain. Her key point was to highlight what this revealed about how these Britons understood themselves, particularly how they understood Britishness.   Fast forward to Brexit and ‘Bad Britain’ takes on a renewed significance for Britons living in the EU27. Indeed, this is a common trope in how those we have been speaking to for the Brexit Brits Abroad project account for Brexit and describe their reactions to it. Michaela talks with Dr Katie Higgins about how we can understand the ‘Bad Britain discourse’ emerging through these responses. Discussing the findings of Katie’s survey with British citizens living in the EU27, and her recently published article on this topic, she explains what the embarrassment, shame and loss that characterise many of the responses might tell us about how they understand Britain, Briti

When we think about British populations in Spain, our attention is most often drawn to the stereotypical images circulated by the media: pensioners living their retirement in the sun. But what about younger UK citizens living in Spain? What does Brexit mean for the terms on which they live their lives? Terms framed not so much by settlement, but by the ability to move; where Spain is home for today, but perhaps not for tomorrow. This episode of the podcast focuses on the lives of these younger Britons living southern Spain as Michaela welcomes Mike Danby, into the studio to the latest Brexit Brits Abroad report ‘Talking Brexit with 18-35 year-old UK citizens living in Southern Spain’. Unsettling understandings of migration as a permanent one-off move, and talking about how Mike and his interviewees navigate the changing demands of the European labour market they highlight how Brexit is just one challenge in their lives.

There are certain themes that repeatedly arise in the project, and which we have been keen to examine in more detail through the podcast. The spectre of expatriate life—the shaded verandas, the spatial segregation, the Gin and Tonics—is one of these themes. In this episode, Michaela and Chantelle are joined by Sarah Kunz  to discuss her PhD research about how the category of expatriate has been employed and mobilised, and with what effects. Taking us to Cairo and Nairobi, Sarah describes the how the spaces for expatriate social lives are produced, and the racialisation of these spaces. And in her account of The Expatriate Archive housed in the Hague, she reveals how gendered the figure of the expatriate has been even in recent history and the work of a group of women to correct this image through the collection and preservation of life stories. As she advocates, it is important to open up the idea of the expatriate to critical discussion and to recognise that the expatriate is not a monolithic or static categ

In this episode, Michaela speaks with Clio O’Flynn. Based in Adeje, Tenerife, Clio works in communications at the local Mayor’s office, in this role acting as a liaison between the English-speaking community and the local council. She talks to Michaela about the work she does and why she thinks it is important. As she makes clear, her role is caught up in the council's proactive approach to fostering relationships with Adeje’s foreign residents and their efforts to make the local community open and accessible to newcomers to the area. Since the UK’s decision to leave to leave the European Union, she has also found herself talking with local British residents about Brexit, in particular their concerns for their futures. In her reflections, Clio highlights also that Brexit has implications for local councils—particularly in places where British populations are part of local communities—and it is becoming more pressing that they are equipped with accurate knowledge about Brexit and what this means in respect to

In the final installment of our three-part series recorded at the event From Mobile Citizens to Migrants, the panel locate questions of citizenship, identity and belonging brought to the fore by Brexit within longer genealogies of who is a citizen. They talk through processes of inclusion and exclusion and the workings of migration governance and citizenship rights within this. And they consider the prospect and challenges of global free movement for challenging contemporary migration regimes through which some populations are racialized and excluded, while others cross borders with relative ease.   The panel is chaired by Professor Karen O’Reilly (Goldsmiths, University of London) and includes, Aliyyah Ahad (Migration Policy Institute, Europe), Dr Michaela Benson (Goldsmiths, University of London), Dr Nadine El-Enany (Birkbeck, University of London), Omar Khan (Runnymede Trust) and Dr Nando Sigona (University of Birmingham).

In the second installment recorded at our event From Mobile Citizens to migrants, the expert panel—Aliyyah Ahad (Migration Policy Institute), Michaela Benson (Goldsmiths), Nadine El-Enany (Birkbeck), Omar Khan (Runnymede Trust), and Nando Sigona (University of Birmingham)—consider previous transformations in the rights of non-citizen populations, and how these might inform our understandings about the transformation of citizens’ rights through Brexit. Part of the broader ambitions of the event to locate this contemporary transformation within the longer history and broader politics of migration and citizenship, we talk empire, race, geopolitical inequalities, and the hostile environment; how changes to such rights interplay with practices of settlement and acquisition of citizenship; and the prospects for leveling up rights for all migrant populations.

This episode is the first of three recorded at our recent event From Mobile Citizens to Migrants. The event sought to relocate the discussions around citizens’ rights and what Brexit means for UK citizens living in the EU27, and EU migrants living in the UK back into the politics of migration and citizenship, migration governance and policy. In this first intervention, the panelists—Aliyyah Ahad, Michaela Benson, Nadine El-Enany, Omar Khan and Nando Sigona—talk through the distinction between mobile citizens and migrants, and what this means for the question who is a migrant?

In this episode, Michaela rewinds to look back at the question of what brings about British emigration and its complicated! Talking through a few alternative accounts of migration decision-making among UK citizens, she highlights how choice is misleading as way of explaining migration, and how even for UK citizens who have relocated elsewhere in the EU27, that this decision is influenced by a range of factors, that include their personal circumstances, but also wider contexts of social, economic and political transformation. 

In this episode, Michaela is joined by Aliyyah Ahad, Associate Policy Analyst at Migration Policy Institute Europe, to reflect on the report Next Steps: implementing a Brexit deal for UK citizens living in the EU-27, co-authored by the project team and colleagues at Migration Policy Institute. Talking through the findings of the report, they highlight the diverse lives of these UK citizens, but also the concerns that government official and agencies—at both national and local levels—have about what Brexit means for these populations, and what still needs to be done in order to provide some certainty about the future for these UK citizens who have made their homes and lives elsewhere in the EU27. You can download and read the report at: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/implementing-brexit-deal-uk-citizens-eu

Ireland is the thrid most popular destination for UK citizens choosing to migrate and settle in other EU member states, and yet, we rarely hear about Ireland as a destination of the Britons who have made their lives there. To discuss why this is the case, Michaela is joined by Professor Mary Gilmartin, an expert in Ireland and migration. They talk through the UK-Ireland relationship and how this plays out through migration; the politics of migration in Ireland; and the lived experiences of British migrants as they try to settle and integrate in Ireland. You can find out more about Mary and her research here: https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/mary-gilmartin#1

**IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THIS EPISODE** This episode was recorded before the agreed legal text relating to the withdrawal agreement was published on 19th March 2018. The text, particularly relating to healthcare provision—which she discusses in this episode—has been significantly been modified since then. Professor Hervey has amended and updated her evaluation of this element of the withdrawal agreement accordingly—which she discusses in this episode—since then, and you can read all about it in her post for the EU Law Analysis Blog.  Wondering what the draft withdrawal agreement means for UK citizens living in the EU27? In this episode, Michaela is joined once again by EU law expert Professor Tamara Hervey to talk through the complexities of this agreement. From the legal status of this document, what it means in terms of the enforcement of rights, and causes for concern and (limited) cause for celebration, they discuss what this document reveals about the future rights and entitlement for these populat

Chantelle joins Michaela in the studio to disucss who cares about UK citizens living in the EU27? They focus on when and how UK citizens living in the EU27 are represented in UK parliamentary debates and proceedings. They reveal the limited representation of these populations and highlight how, through the focus on issues that lie within the UK governement's responsibility—franchise, pensions, healthcare and exportable benefits—produces a particular figure of UK citizens living abroad emerges: a vulnerable, OAP living in the sunshine.

Michaela is joined in the studio by Chantelle Lewis to talk about her research for the project talking Brexit with UK citizens of colour. While the public perceptions of the UK citizen population overseas focus on a White British subject, we disturb this through our focus on the ethnic diversity within this UK citizen population. Talking Brexit with UK citizens of colour who have made their homes and lives elsewhere in the EU, we reveal how Brexit intersects with longer personal histories of racism and of being excluded by the British national imaginary; Brexit for them is experienced as business as useful, a continuation of everyday racism in which they are called to account for why they should be considered as British.

In this episode, Michaela talks with Karen about her paper from the early 2000s that identified the contradictory ways in which Britons in Spain related to their new place of residence and the Spanish population. Such contradictions—on the one hand, the decidedly colonialist narratives, and on the other the openness to difference—were mirrored also in the ambivalence of the British and Britain towards Europe. Fast forward to Brexit, and these contradictions, in all their complexity, come once again to the fore. You can read more about this in Karen’s recent blog Doing the Hokey Cokey or get in touch if you want a copy of the original journal article we discuss in the episode.

With the new year we thought we would turn things up a notch and introduce some of the sociological themes from the project. In this episode, Michaela reflects on her research talking Brexit with UK citizens in France to turn attention onto questions of belonging. She focuses in particular on how Brexit has raised questions for them about their sense of themselves as British. It asks the question of what it means for them to be British in Europe in a time of Brexit. You can find out more about Michaela’s research in France on our website:   https://brexitbritsabroad.com/category/france/   And in case you missed it, check back in with our 12 days of Brexit Brits Abroad feature:   https://brexitbritsabroad.com/12-days/

In our final micro-podcast for our 12 days of Brexit Brits Abroad feature we talk about UK citizens living in the EU27 and dual nationality.