Brexit and precarity: Polish female workers in the UK as second‐class citizens?

Abstract

Immigration was a decisive factor in pre-Brexit-vote debates and it remains one of the most divisive topics globally; therefore, it is worthy of attention. Whilst the British people had an opportunity to have their say on Brexit, EU migrant workers have not. This article gives them a voice as it is based on original data from 40 qualitative interviews with female EU citizens to the UK, conducted before and after the Brexit-vote. This article further develops the notion of precarity in relation to EU migrants to the UK in light of Brexit and adds to debates on gender in migration.This paper provides wider policy implications for the British and other EU countries' authorities as it engages with debates on Brexit from the point of view of the UK labour force as voices of economic women migrants from Poland are presented.

A Bad Break-Up? Assessing the Effects of the 2016 Brexit Referendum on Migration

“…As a result, they may be discouraged from moving and are seeking less information on their own. The importance of uncertainty in the referendum impact is in line with other qualitative work (Auer & Tetlow, 2020;Duda-Mikulin, 2023;Godin & Sigona, 2022). In addition, we find that although the income e↵ect through exchange rate fluctuations plays a significant role in the decision to migrate, it cannot explain much of the uncovered impact.…”

“…Various studies rely on in-depth interviews with immigrants (Benson & Lewis, 2019;Klimavičiūtė et al, 2020;Lulle et al, 2019;Sredanović, 2021). According to Duda-Mikulin (2023), Polish respondents mentioned that the emotional and material insecurities as well as the feeling of betrayal were a↵ecting their decision-making regarding long-term settlement in the UK. Similar negative responses are found among Italian, Irish and Romanian young adults in London, by Lulle et al (2018).…”

Loneliness and time abroad in Polish migrants in the UK: Protective role of religious experience

“…Those data often include the size of the locality of residence, percentage of the population accounted for by other migrants, and availability of access to cultural facilities, host country social support, media, and centers providing cultural and religious activities [15]. Among the factors directly related to the level of loneliness in migrants, time spent abroad especially should be taken into account [16]. Studies indicate that the relationship between loneliness and time spent abroad may have a curvilinear character, which in the past has often led to ambiguous results (e.g., [17][18][19]).…”