Rebordering Britain and Britons after Brexit: Survey, Panels and Interviews with British, EU and Non-EU Migrants, 2021-2023

Sigona, Nando and Benson, Michaela and Zambelli, Elena and Craven, Catherine and Au-Yeung, Terry S.H. and Kogut, Natalia and Lytvyniuk, Anastasiia (2025). Rebordering Britain and Britons after Brexit: Survey, Panels and Interviews with British, EU and Non-EU Migrants, 2021-2023. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857643

The Brexit negotiations have brought public and political attention to longstanding concerns within migration and citizenship scholarship, throwing questions of citizenship, migration and belonging into sharp relief. It is also clear that Brexit has affected people's sense of belonging, mobility and settlement plans. In the wake of Brexit, Britons in the EU and EU citizens and non-EU Third Country Nationals (TCN) in the UK are finding the status and the terms of their residence challenged, their claims to belonging, and access to rights questioned, their settlement plans in jeopardy.

Rebordering Britain and Britons after Brexit (MIGZEN) turns its attention towards these emerging issues. Through a collaborative project involving academics, policy makers, civil society and migrant-led organisations it aims to produce new knowledge about migration between the UK and EU, and how the changing legal and political relationship between the UK and EU in consequence of Brexit shapes migration and migrant experience - including settlement, questions of identity, citizenship and belonging.

It takes a unique approach to understanding the story of migration between Britain and Europe that foregrounds both immigration and emigration from Britain, and adopts an inclusive understanding of who is a migrant to examine different forms of mobility, including third country nationals and those previously entitled to freedom of movement, namely UK nationals moving within the EU, and EU citizens moving to the UK. It offers a critical analysis of the relationship between migration and migration governance in the UK that situates it in the context of the current geopolitical repositioning of the country. By foregrounding the nexus between migration and citizenship, MIGZEN offers in-depth insights into the changing relationship between the UK and European Union through a focus on migration and its governance.

The project develops an ambitious and innovative programme of work on the impact of Brexit on migration to and from the United Kingdom at a range of scales: (a) policies and legal structures; (b) flows and routes; (c) migration strategies and settlement experiences where it addresses the following research questions:

- How, and in what ways, have volume, geography and direction of migration flows between the UK and EU changed since the Brexit Referendum? And how does this relate to global migrations to and from the UK?
- In what ways do settled populations - UK nationals resident in EU member states before Brexit and EU citizens living in the UK - assess their mobile and residential futures in light of their changing legal status, personal circumstances, political and economic crises, and the COVID-19 pandemic?
- How do transformations to migration governance regimes intervene in (a) decisions to migrate and repatriate (b) subsequent experiences of settlement for those newly migrating between to the UK and from the UK to the EU following Brexit?

Through an extensive and ambitious dissemination and impact plan, the project will contribute to academic, policy, and public debates on the past, present, and future lived experiences of Brexit and migration to and from the UK. Our research offers a unique longitudinal vantage point from which to examine the dilemmas and challenges British emigrants, EU and non-EU immigrants are facing as a result of Brexit, as well as to cast light on how they are coping, adapting and responding to the additional challenges brought by COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.

Data description (abstract)

Migration to and from the UK after Brexit was a thirty-nine months project (Jan 2021 – March 2024) funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through their Governance After Brexit Scheme [‘Rebordering Britain and Britons after Brexit’ (MIGZEN), Grant Number: ES/V004530/1] and led by researchers at the University of Birmingham (Lead Research Organisation) and Lancaster University. Brexit brought public and political attention to longstanding concerns within migration and citizenship scholarship, throwing questions of citizenship, migration and belonging into sharp relief; it also affected people's sense of belonging, mobility and settlement plans, as Britons in the EU and EU citizens and non-EU Third Country Nationals (TCN) in the UK found the status and the terms of their residence challenged, their claims to belonging, and access to rights questioned, their settlement plans in jeopardy.

With the end of the Brexit transition period came significant changes in the composition of migration flows to and from the UK, which were further compounded by the geopolitical effects and implications of the tense relationship between China and Hong Kong, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

A collaborative, mixed-method research project involving academics, policy makers, civil society and migrant-led organisations, the project therefore explored the long-term impacts of Brexit and Britain’s shifting position on the world stage on migration to and from the UK, and on migrants’ experiences of these. Through this research, we sought to inform migration policy and debate by providing evidence of the everyday challenges brought by Brexit on individuals and their families living within and across the UK borders.

The project consisted of three phases as follows:
- Phase 1: Survey (‘Migration and Citizenship after Brexit’): conducted in the UK and the EU between 13 December 2021 and 16 January 2022.
- Phase 2: People’s Panel: conducted in the UK and the EU between May and December 2022.
- Phase 3: Interviews with repatriating British citizens: conducted in the UK between May and September 2022;
Interviews with Ukrainians, family and highly skilled migrants in the UK: conducted in the UK between September 2022 and February 2023; and
Interviews with British emigrants: conducted in the UK between April and August 2023.

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