Brexit, race and migration

Abstract

This timely series of interventions scrutinises the centrality of race and migration to the 2016 Brexit campaign, vote and its aftermath. It brings together five individual pieces, with an accompanying introduction, which interrogate different facets of how race, migration and Brexit interconnect: an examination of the so called 'left behinds' and the fundamental intersections between geography, race and class at the heart of Brexit motivations and contexts; an exploration of arguably parallel and similarly complex developments in the US with the rise of populism and support for Donald Trump; an analysis of the role of whiteness in the experiences of East European nationals in the UK in the face of increased anti-foreigner sentiment and uncertainty about future status; a discussion of intergenerational differences in outlooks on race and immigration and the sidelining of different people and places in Brexit debates; and a studied critique of prevailing tropes about Brexit which create divisive classed and raced categories and seek to oversimplify broader understandings of race, class and migration. Taken together these articles, all arguing for the need to eschew easy answers and superficial narratives, offer important and opportune insights into what Brexit tells us about race and migration in contemporary UK.

The hostile environment, Brexit, and ‘reactive‐’ or ‘protective transnationalism’

“…Shabed blurs anti-immigrant feeling and anti-Muslim sentiment, mirroring much of the public commentary of the time. As Burrell and Hopkins (2019) argue, fears of Muslims arriving in Britain were routinely used as racist justification for Brexit (Etehad 2016;Rogaly 2019). Much has been written about how the state's counter-terrorism focus on Muslim communities has fostered anti-Muslim racism (see for example Cohen and Tufail 2017).…”

“…Following the vote, countless reports circulated across the press and social media of British Muslims being threatened and told they must 'go home now' (Jones et al 2017). Many interviewees suggested that, in this way, Brexit discourse was not disconnected from wider racialized tropes but instead capitalized upon older, broader racial anxieties (Burrell and Hopkins 2019). Interviewees argued that the referendum legitimized previously held anti-immigrant sentiments.…”

“…Anti-Muslim racism was clearly present in the campaigns surrounding the referendum, though appeals to it were often indirect (Rogaly 2019). As Virdee andMcGeever (2018: 1807) argue 'it was clear to many … that breaking with the EU and "taking back control of our borders" also represented an important opportunity to limit the numbers of Muslims entering Britain'.…”

“…Anti-Muslim and anti-Asian racism were not created by Brexit; clearly this cannot be interpreted as something entirely new, especially in the light of the inherently colonial positioning that Brexit inhabits (Bhambra 2017;Burrell and Hopkins 2019;Emejulu 2016). Also, of course, UK immigration policy was racialized long before the implementation of the 'hostile environment' (Spencer 2002).…”

Social Geography II: Islamophobia, transphobia, and sizism

“…This is especially pertinent at present given the current political climate in many Western nations (e.g. Burrell et al, 2019), where challenges to equality, diversity and inclusion come not only from the election of right-wing politicians but also from diverse interest groups, including those associated with the alt-right and those operating persistently through diverse forms of online and social media.…”