Britons are owning property and living in France like never before. As such, they are part of the broader phenomena of the free movement of European Union (EU) 'citizens' within the EU's borders (intra-EU migration); and the centuries-old Franco-British relationship. We explore the salience of each of these contexts for the latest British emigrés to cross the Channel, by means of a case study of the Pays d'Auge area of Normandy. On the basis of our fieldwork with approximately 20 British households, we assess and update material first collected from and about these British migrants almost two decades ago. We review our findings in the light of the state of the FrancoBritish relationship, and the realities of a 'Citizens' Europe'. In terms of the freedom of movement, there were 'citizens' before the Maastricht Treaty created the EU and the 'European citizen' as a formal and legal entity, and our study in fact concerns a sample of Britons who emigrated to France at the tail end of Thatcher's decade -the 1980s. Nearly twenty years after their exodus, they offer us their reflections, and we reflect upon the extent to which their status as EU 'insiders' is incidental to more compelling and age-old logics motivating the migratory decision. The original four freedoms of the Treaty of Rome included the freedom of movement of 'persons' as workers, and in 1992, the Maastricht Treaty on European Union went so far as to create the legally-enforceable figure of the European Citizen who is steadily accruing rights, expectations and, who knows, identity. These advantages include the right to mobility and residence within the EU, the right to vote and stand for election at local and EU-level elections in the member state where they are resident; and access to social rights in the form of, for example, welfare and education provision. Of these, Recchi insists on the A Case Study of Intra-EU migration. 20 Years of 'Brits' in the Pays d'Auge, Normandy, France 3 significance of 'the rights to free movement and settlement in the entire EU territory' as the 'cornerstone' of EU citizenship ' (2006: 60). In these ways, Europeans are reminded of their role as actors in the integration process, above and beyond the commodification of their functions as consumers, tourists, students, pensioners or workers, and this in increasingly glaring contrast to the EU's 'outsiders', or third country nationals (TCNs).Indeed, one aspect of this people's Europe is that the movement of people with an intent to settle or reside, either temporarily or permanently, based on a desire for change, increasingly occurs in a public policy environment dominated by discourses of immigration and asylum and in a specific international situation in which the EU's leaders perceive themselves to be operating. 1 This is a policy frame focused on the world outside the EU's boundaries and on movement from that world towards the EU in the form of
Against a long trend decline in the membership of political parties in Western democracies, there has been an unexpected surge in the UK since 2015. Interestingly, this phenomenon has also been observed amongst British expatriates, despite their historically very low levels of engagement. Our paper explores this development using a multi-methods approach to investigate its impact across the three main parties, comparing the relative importance of supply-side and demand-side factors in each case. We show that the creation and development of British parties abroad are the result of two contrasting dynamics: a top-down one, which gives legitimacy and structure and in some cases, resources, and a bottom-up one, which gives purpose but also networks. Our survey of British expatriate party members reveals a diversity of triggers and motivations for membership, making an original contribution to the wider literature on party membership and on the political engagement of emigrants.
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