About

‘This is our home’ – such a simple statement, but one that the EU referendum and Brexit has made a bone of contention for many: those who do not see EU citizens, and often immigrants more broadly, as part of the UK. But the response to that is as simple: they are.

TThis project carries out activities and research within that wider context, seeking (1) to provide routes of engagement with EU citizens’ rights issues to diverse stakeholders, ranging from EU citizens themselves to  policy makers, and (2) offer new research findings on EU citizens’ rights issue that have emerged, and continue to emerge, as a result of Brexit.

In the longer term there are also plans to provide a wider engagement platform that can be used by organisations and communities, other stakeholders and interested parties, to learn more about EU citizens’ rights and the experiences of EU citizens post-Brexit.

Who is involved?

Brexit has challenged the meaning and value of freedom of movement and how it is seen in the UK. For EU citizens this has already had significant immediate impacts, many of them negative. Simultaneously, however, a new kind of European diaspora is beginning to emerge in the UK, exhibiting the same characteristics of associational activism and distinct identity expressions that I have explored in historical context. My NPF project seeks to examine the development of this European diaspora in longitudinal perspective to shed light on the types of immigrant action that are developing in post-Brexit UK.

Prof Tanja Bueltmann

Chair in international history,
university of strathclyde

I started my PhD research just after the EU referendum result and submitted my thesis on attitudes towards EU migrants in the UK after the Withdrawal Agreement was implemented. During the same time, I worked in the third sector on EU migrants’ access to citizenship and political rights. Brexit has impacted EU citizens in different ways – often, depending on place, whether it is through stereotypes based on migrants’ country of origin or where they live in the UK. I am glad to continue to explore experiences of identity, belonging and representation amongst EU citizens as a Research Associate on this project.

Dr Alexandra Bulat

Research Associate,
university of Strathclyde