From privileged to thwarted stakeholders – Polish migrants’ perceptions of the Scottish Independence Referendum 2014 and the UK General Election in 2015

McGhee, Derek; Pietka-Nykaza, Emilia

doi:10.1080/13621025.2016.1191430

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The vote for Brexit, and the discourse surrounding it, is perceived as a counterpoint to their aspirations for a multilingual and multinational Britain. This has been central to the mobilisation of grassroots campaigns for EU citizen rights where the political agency of migrants is visible through practices of “stakeholder citizenship” (McGhee & Piętka‐Nykaza, ). At the same time, the many positive associations with everyday, local sites of belonging show that encounters in place are key to fostering emotional citizenry of EU nationals (Askins, ).…”

Section: Negotiating Brexit Geopolitics In Everyday Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scotland's particular political and constitutional context has also had an impact on Polish migrants who have settled throughout the country. The full enfranchisement experienced by Polish migrants in the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum and subsequent disenfranchisement from the 2015 U.K. General Election led to many being frustrated as “thwarted stakeholders” (McGhee & Piętka‐Nykaza, ). This has been exacerbated by EU nationals' disenfranchisement from the U.K.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rescaling belonging in “Brexit Britain”: Spatial identities and practices of Polish nationals in Scotland after the U.K. Referendum on European Union membership

Botterill¹,

Hancock

2018

Population Space and Place

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This paper discusses how the 2016 U.K. Referendum on European Union membership has shaped the spatial identities and practices of Polish nationals living in Scotland.On the basis of original qualitative data collected in Edinburgh after the referendum, we make two key arguments. First, the referendum was a catalyst for Polish nationals to rescale spatial identities and challenge normative definitions of nationalism and citizenship. We highlight the role of emotion as a key driver in this process, showing that multiscalar attachments to place and strategies for onward mobility, adaptation, and integration after Brexit are constructed through emotionality. Second, the paper argues that Polish nationals' spatial practices have been shaped by anti-immigrant discourse and sentiment surrounding the Brexit vote. In particular, local public spaces are viewed simultaneously as sites of potential conflict and sites of meaningful intercultural engagement and everyday citizenship. A broader aim of the paper is to advance feminist theory and praxis in population geography through a focus on nonhierarchical and relational scales of experience to better understand migrant identities and practices in a changing Europe.

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Section: Negotiating Brexit Geopolitics In Everyday Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rescaling belonging in “Brexit Britain”: Spatial identities and practices of Polish nationals in Scotland after the U.K. Referendum on European Union membership

Botterill¹,

Hancock

2018

Population Space and Place

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“…On the other hand, the limitations of the political component of EU citizenship have only become evident to EU ‘migrants’ in the UK when the Parliamentary franchise was applied in respect to the EU referendum, a plebiscite on a question directly affecting their citizenship rights (cf. McGhee and Piętka‐Nykaza ). In one possible reading of the EU referendum in relation to ‘free movement’ based on the observed curtailment of the social and political edges of EU citizenship, therefore, it reaffirmed a conception of citizenship bound around some principle of ‘nationality’ (Miller ; cf.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stakeholder identities in Britain's neoliberal ethical community: Polish narratives of earned citizenship in the context of the UK's EU referendum

McGhee

Moreh

Vlachantoni

2018

British Journal of Sociology

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This article examines the narrative strategies through which Polish migrants in the UK challenge the formal rights of political membership and attempt to redefine the boundaries of 'citizenship' along notions of deservedness. The analysed qualitative data originate from an online survey conducted in the months before the 2016 EU referendum, and the narratives emerge from the open-text answers to two survey questions concerning attitudes towards the referendum and the exclusion of resident EU nationals from the electoral process. The analysis identifies and describes three narrative strategies in reaction to the public discourses surrounding the EU referendum - namely discursive complicity, intergroup hostility and defensive assertiveness - which attempt to redefine the conditions of membership in Britain's 'ethical community' in respect to welfare practices. Examining these processes simultaneously 'from below' and 'from outside' the national political community, the paper argues, can reveal more of the transformation taking place in conceptions of citizenship at the sociological level, and the article aims to identify the contours of a 'neoliberal communitarian citizenship' as internalized by mobile EU citizens.

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“…At the same time, we now must consider 'Brexit' as a new factor which potentially affects migrants' plans and strategies. Based on sporadic evidence in this respect in the recent literature, we can assume that the outcome of the referendum on EU membership is likely to disrupt Polish migrants' reported habitus of 'deliberate indeterminacy' (McGhee and Piętka-Nykaza 2016;Ryan 2015).…”

Section: Operationalising Indeterminacymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The survey had the broader goal of assessing different EU migrants' opinions on the Referendum, their future plans and coping strategies in the event of a potential Brexit vote, as well as their attitudes towards British citizenship. The focus on the latter was driven by the already noticeable surge in applications for British citizenship by EU nationals, stirred by fears regarding the UK's uncertain future EU membership (McGhee and Piętka-Nykaza 2016;Ryan 2015). In this paper, we focus on a sample of 894 Polish respondents.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An ‘undeliberate determinacy’? The changing migration strategies of Polish migrants in the UK in times of Brexit

McGhee

Moreh

Vlachantoni

2017

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

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This paper reformulates classical questions regarding the plans and strategies of Polish migrants in the UK -such as decisions to leave or remain in the host country, or be 'deliberately indeterminate' about future plans -from a sociologically situated 'rights-based' perspective. This approach considers migrants' attitudes towards specific 'civic integration' measures in a medium-term time frame, as well as in the new context created by the UK's vote to leave the EU. Based on the quantitative analysis of original survey data, we investigate the factors behind Polish migrants' migration strategies, and we argue that basic socio-economic and demographic factors are inadequate, on their own terms, to explain future migration and civic integration plans. Instead, we find that aspects such as interest in and awareness of one's rights, as well as anxieties about the ability to maintain one's rights in the future are stronger determinants.

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From privileged to thwarted stakeholders – Polish migrants’ perceptions of the Scottish Independence Referendum 2014 and the UK General Election in 2015

Cited by 7 publications

References 14 publications

Rescaling belonging in “Brexit Britain”: Spatial identities and practices of Polish nationals in Scotland after the U.K. Referendum on European Union membership

Rescaling belonging in “Brexit Britain”: Spatial identities and practices of Polish nationals in Scotland after the U.K. Referendum on European Union membership

Stakeholder identities in Britain's neoliberal ethical community: Polish narratives of earned citizenship in the context of the UK's EU referendum

An ‘undeliberate determinacy’? The changing migration strategies of Polish migrants in the UK in times of Brexit

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