Brexit and Mobility: Between Connection, Disruption and Affect - professor Russell King

The unexpected result of the Brexit referendum has left hundreds of migrants, who have been contributing to the British economy, in limbo. For these young people from Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania and other European countries “should I stay or should I go” is no longer just a song by Clash, but a real dilemma. In his lecture on “Brexit and Mobility: Between Connection, Disruption and Affect”, Professor Russell King from the University of Sussex will talk about the challenges these young migrants are currently facing.

The lecture, organized jointly by SWPS University's Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program and the Centre of Migration Research of University of Warsaw, is part of the series The Challenges of the Humanities of the 21st Century.

This lecture considers the pre-Brexit and post-Brexit experiences of a large and diverse sample of young EU migrants interviewed in the London and South-East Region in the months before the Brexit Referendum of 23 June 2016, and re-interviewed in the months following the vote.
The research draws on a wider program of activities funded by the H2020 project ‘YMOBILITY’ on new European youth mobilities, coordinated across nine EU countries. Pre-Brexit, 120 interviews were carried out with young (18–35) migrants from six countries: Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Spain. Post-Brexit, about half of the original sample were re-interviewed to gauge their reactions to the unexpected result and to get an idea of how their future plans had changed. Additionally, 15 young Poles were also interviewed post-Brexit. Although the generalizations from the analysis are drawn from a reading of all the interview transcripts, this presentation strategically selects three national groups – Irish, Italians and Romanians – to compare and contrast their reactions.

We find a post-Brexit migrant population profoundly upset by the Brexit outcome and uncertain about their future. Reacting against a resurgent ‘affective nationalism’ in Britain (especially England), phrases like ‘You don’t want us anymore’, and ‘What have we done to deserve this?’ echo through the post-Brexit interviews. Against a widespread ‘Let’s wait and see what happens’ narrative, others remain defiant and stress their ‘rights to belong’, whilst others plan to return quickly to their country of origin. These reactions should be seen in the background context of ongoing tricky negotiations between Britain and the EU over the rights of EU citizens in the UK and the promise to ‘control our borders’ as regards immigration from the EU.

Speaker:

Russell King - Professor at the Department of Geography, at the University of Sussex. Member of the Centre for Innovation and Research in Childhood and Youth. He specializes in Migration Studies. His previous posts include Professor of Geography at Trinity College Dublin and Lecturer in Geography at the University of Leicester. He held visiting appointments at the University of Malta, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, the University of Trieste and Cornell. During 2013 he was Willy Brandt Guest Professor in Migration Studies at Malmo University and he continues there as part-time visiting professor. In 1986 he was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Edward Heath medal for his work on the geography of Europe and the Mediterranean, and he is Honorary Fellow of the Società Geografica Italiana.

#Brexit #mobility #migration #migrants #migrant studies #Post-Brexit #EU population