Belonging in Brexit Britain: Central and Eastern European 1.5 generation young people's experiences

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the experiences of young people born in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) who are part of the 1.5 migrant generation living in "BrexitBritain." We focus on two key themes: (a) young people's feelings of belonging to Britain, their countries of birth and Europe, and the ways in which these have been impacted by the EU Referendum result; (b) young people's future plans, in an intergenerational context, with particular regard to their feelings of belonging and the ruptures of migration and Brexit. Britain's decision to leave the EU caused uncertainty for CEE 1.5 generation young people at a time when many of them were consciously reflecting on their beings, becomings, and belongings. The majority of young people asserted a sense of belonging to Britain whilst simultaneously feeling a sense of "inbetween-ness." Many young people wanted to remain living in Britain, at least in the short term, and felt a sense of belonging to Britain. Our focus on the potential intergenerational impact of Brexit suggests that CEE young people and parents may view possibilities for the future differently; we examine some of the key reasons for these differences from the young people's perspectives. KEYWORDS 1.5 generation, Brexit, Central and Eastern Europe, migration, young people 1 | INTRODUCTION "Brexit means Brexit," the Prime Minister, Theresa May, famously declared in the aftermath of the EU Referendum in June 2016. At the time of writing, in June 2018, Britain has triggered Article 50, and negotiations on Britain's exit from the EU are ongoing. However, the public is still unclear over the details of what kind of relationship Britain will have with the EU once it leaves in March 2019, if the agreed period of negotiations is not extended by agreement with the EU member states. What has become clear, in the time since the 2016 Referendum, is that Brexit is very likely to have significant implications not just for Britain's place in Europe, but also for its demographic makeup and promoted national identity. A significant aspect in the build-up to the Brexit Referendum was the debate on immigration. Questioning the exclusively economic explanation for the majority pro-Brexit vote, Virdee and McGeever (2017) examine the discursive dimensions of the Leave campaign and show how this was built on a narrative which aimed to reinstate the sovereign will of the British people, exemplified through slogans such as "Let's take back control." Indeed, the Leave campaign led by both the UKIP party and sections of the Conservative party focused on a politics of reasserting Britishness as an identity which must be preserved and reasserted in the face of the threat of increasing immigration. Virdee and McGeever (2017) call this a politics of nationalist resentment, which comes in a long history of racialised identities constructed in relation to migrants and feelings of national belonging, and debates on who has a right to belong. StockerThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licen...

Brexit, Europe and othering

“…Arguably, the hostility towards migrants from the EU was seen throughout the referendum campaign. There was a clear denial of their voice or scope for active citizenship through voting rights (Tyrrell, Sime, Kelly, & McMellon, 2018), while the nadir of the whole campaign came with the unveiling by UKIP leader Nigel Farage of a poster entitled 'Breaking Point: the EU has failed us all'. The poster depicted a line of non-white (mostly Syrian) refugees crossing the border between Croatia and Slovenia but was used as part of an ongoing campaign against migration from existing EU countries.…”

New Scots? Eastern European young people's feelings of belonging and national identity in Scotland post-Brexit

“…At the same time, young people remained unsure whether they will be able to continue to live in the UK and 85% did not feel hopeful about Britain's decision to leave the EU. Close to half (43%) said they felt 'worried' about their future post-Brexit (see Tyrrell et al, 2019). Young people were aware of the key role that the anti-immigration rhetoric had played in the Brexit Referendum: In the online survey, young people also described incidents of cultural racism, xenophobia and microaggressions they experienced mainly in school, but also in public places, which made them think they were not welcome in Scotland, despite their feelings of belonging here.…”

“…While other studies (Guma and Dafydd Jones, 2019) have mainly documented the concerns and anxieties of adult migrants, this paper draws on findings from research carried out with young people aged 12-18 who arrived in the UK as migrant children from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) after the enlargement of the European Union post-2004. The project, carried out between April 2016 and January 2019, covering both the Referendum and the post-Referendum period, explored young people's feelings of identity and belonging in the UK and plans for future in the context of the Brexit negotiations (Tyrrell et al, 2019;Sime et al, 2020). The findings present the first analysis since the Brexit Referendum of how young EU migrants navigate multiple national identities and find it difficult to claim Scottishness, despite its proclaimed inclusive nature and the pro-Europeanism which have become the cornerstone of progressive politics in Scotland.…”

Envisaging post-Brexit immobility: Polish migrants’ care intentions concerning their elderly parents

“…Brexit represents a period of uncertainty and a (potentially) disruptive event happening not only at a particular historical moment but also at particular points in individual life courses. It thus has different consequences for young people from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in the UK (Tyrrell et al 2019) than for British retirees elsewhere in the EU (e.g. Miller 2019).…”