For Zoe Adams Green ‘The EU was my oyster’. Joining Michaela down the line from Italy, she describes her love affair with Europe, and her experiences moving around the EU seeking work and latterly starting a family, opportunities that will be out of reach for future generations of British citizens once they lose their rights to Freedom of Movement.  As a campaigner for citizens’ rights through her work for British in Europe, she explains the potential far-reaching consequences of Brexit for the British citizens who have made their homes and lives in the EU-27.    Zoe Adams Green is a translator and a member of British in Europe’s steering group. You can find out more about British in Europe and their legal advocacy work on their website https://britishineurope.org     

Brexit Brits Abroad

An EU love affair

British migration to the Spanish coastline is only part of the story about British emigration to Spain. In this episode Michaela is joined down the line by Michael Harris, British in Europe steering committee member, founder of Eurocitizens, who has been living in Madrid for close to 40 years. He shares his migration story, from fleeing Thatcher’s Britain to living in Spain in the 1980s, the conditions and circumstances which shaped this. He draws out his understanding of what it means to be European and how this overlaps with other identities, and the importance of campaigning for and defending the rights of European citizens.

Living in Spain … nearly 40 years on

A lesser known story of British migration to the EU is how it interplays with social mobility. In this episode, Michaela is joined by Fiona Godfrey, co-chair of British in Europe, a resident of Luxembourg to bust the myth that British citizens living in Europe are wealthy and originate in the south England. They discuss her migration biography from Barnsley to Luxembourg, an intimate family history of the precariousness of citizenship rights, and the multiple challenges of advocating for the rights of British citizens living in the EU.

Social mobility, Free Movement and the impermanence of citizenship rights

We’re travelling to Poland today, as Michaela talks with Steve Davies, who is studying for his PhD in Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences. From the fall of the Berlin Wall to Brexit, Steve introduces us to a lesser known story of intra-EU mobility: the migration and settlement of British citizens in Poland. He highlights how Poland’s history, its position within the EU shapes migration and British experiences of life there; and reflects on how British-Polish families, a success of European integration, navigate migration, transnational relationships and Brexit together.     You can read Steve’s reflections on British Experiences of Coronavirus and Brexit in Poland: https://researchingbrexit.wordpress.com/2020/05/26/british-experiences-of-coronavirus-and-brexit-in-poland/ 

Brexit and the British in Poland

Recorded earlier this year, in the episode Michaela talks with Lisa in France. In her thirties and married to a French man, she talks about what the EU has meant for her and her life. Moving within Europe as a student and in the first stages of her career, she eventually settled in France with her husband. But this was never the firm plan, just the outcome of changing jobs and personal circumstances. And there were moments when moving to the UK might also have been on the cards, including in the lead up to Brexit. Living in Europe post-Brexit, Lisa explains that her British identity remains important to her but despite Britain no longer being in the EU, she will always feel European.    *We had some technical difficulties recording this episode, and so the sound quality is not up to our usual standards!

Brexit in the real lives of British citizens living in the EU27: Lisa in France

In the wake of the Brexit referendum, British citizens living across Europe started to come together in an unprecedented way, concerned about what Brexit might mean for their future legal status. In this episode, Michaela is joined by Jane Golding, co-chair of British in Europe to talk about the grassroots legal advocacy work on the future rights of British citizens living in the EU26 that they have been doing since the Brexit referendum. They discuss the movements pan-European journey from the Referendum to the present, the struggles for citizens’ rights and ongoing concerns about the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement.

Advocating for British in Europe, from Referendum to COVID-19

It’s the second of this week’s double-bill to mark the release of our latest reports! Michaela and Karen discuss the report drawing across three years of researching Brexit in the lives of Britons living in France. They talk about making sense of the ongoing uncertainty that Brexit has introduced to the lives of many Britons in France, and what this might tell us about how the negotiations and their impacts on the human lives at the core of citizens’ rights might have been managed differently. They explore personal experiences of Brexit from the relationships that these Britons have with friends and family in the UK to how British citizens in France found themselves making sense of Brexit for them, their experiences of having nowhere to turn and the uneven outcomes that Brexit has had for their lives.    To read Michaela’s report Brexit and the British in France visit https://brexitbritsabroad.org/reports.

Brexit and the British in France, three years on

This week we’re bringing you a double-bill to mark the release of our latest reports. In this first episode, Michaela is joined by Karen to talk about her report drawing across three years of researching Brexit in the lives of Britons living in Spain. They discuss the importance of locating Brexit within the context and conditions of British migration and settlement in Spain over time; the ongoing confusion about what Brexit means for their lives and futures; and the ever-present spectre of stereotypes about these British citizens and their lives in Spain. As their experience of Brexit makes clear, from the outset the onus was placed on individuals to make sense of what is happening to their rights, as they internalised an understanding that they were nobody’s responsibility but their own.    To read Karen’s report Brexit and the British in Spain visit https://brexitbritsabroad.org/reports.

Brexit and the British in Spain, three years on

Recorded in Berlin in November 2019, in this episode Michaela is joined by Christy Kulz, Technical University Berlin and Christine Barwick, Centre Marc Bloch, to talk about the migration of British citizens to Berlin. We disturb some of the reductive narratives about the British in Berlin, in particular, understandings that see them solely as the young, creative industry workers. We question instead what the migration of these younger Britons reveals about contemporary urban and economic transformations in Europe. Further, we reposition these migrations in a longer history and the context of Berlin as a city past and present.

The British in Berlin, from the Berlin Wall to gentrification and the creative classes

Sticking with the theme of Brexit and Ireland, Michaela is joined by Vikki Barry Brown, a PhD candidate from Queen Mary, University of London, to talk about Irish passports, English and Irish identities, and Brexit. They discuss the rise in applications of Irish passport following Brexit and how the significance placed on this by those claiming these passports (through ancestry) extends beyond pragmatic and legal issues, into questions of identity, the experience a site for uncovering previously hidden family histories. Turning to Vikki’s PhD research about the English in Ireland, they talk about this hidden population, from the context to the questions of identity, home and belonging at the heart of the project.    You can find out more about Vikki's research here: https://englishinireland.vbarrybrown.com and read her Irish Times article about the rise in applications for Irish passports in the Irish Times: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/brexit-irish-getting-an-irish-passport-was-partly-about-rebelling-1.3954125

From the ‘Brexit Irish’ to the English in Ireland

Since the recording of this podcast, the election returned a majority Conservative government in Westminster which has since passed the Withdrawal Agreement for leaving the EU. A transition period, lasting at least until the end of 2020, should mean British citizens in EU countries will retain their current rights until at least that period. If you are worried about your situation, you can get advice from independent organisations such as the Immigrant Council of Ireland (https://www.immigrantcouncil.ie/contact). We’re back to Ireland in today’s episode. Joined by Luke Butterly, a journalist who has focussed on bordering between the UK and Ireland, Michaela explores two prominent dimensions of the Brexit at their intersections: the border and migration. As they discuss, the prevailing imaginings of a frictionless border hide from view the racialised politics of the border made visible in who is questioned for their right to cross this border freely. Repositioning questions of Brexit and the border within this politics shifts focus from the history of the British-Irish relationship to how it is caught up in bordering regimes in both countries. They also highlight how  falling back on the Common Travel Area overlooks the rights of UK citizens living in Ireland that rest on EU directives about Freedom of Movement, with the consequence that these have not been addressed.    Find out more about Luke and his work on this contently site https://lukejbutterly.contently.com. 

The Irish border and bordering practices before and after Brexit

Our first episode of 2020, and it’s a throwback to a live recording of presentation that Michaela and Karen gave to colleagues at a conference in Umeå, Sweden. They offer some reflections on the practice of doing research with British citizens living in the EU27 over the course of the Brexit negotiations. As they draw out the complex picture of how these Britons navigate protracted uncertainty, they reflect on a set of key themes emerging from the project. In particular, they discuss the sociological importance of the observation that these Britons living in the EU27 seem to be nobody’s responsibility but their own, left to take matters into their own hands by their own government and the EU.

A Brexit Brits Abroad Retrospective

This episode sees Michaela joined by Adrienne Yong, lecturer at City Law School (https://www.city.ac.uk/people/academics/adrienne-yong), to talk legal perspectives on Brexit and citizens’ rights. Adrienne offers her analysis of what case law reveals about shifts within legal understandings of EU citizenship. She charts the trajectory of EU citizenship from its base in market citizenship—where the rights of citizenship are in the service of economic integration within the Union—towards an approach more grounded in fundamental rights which takes as a starting point the citizen. Discussing settled status for EU citizens in the UK and the loss of EU citizenship for UK nationals living in the EU27, the discussion turns to how these legal perspectives can help us to understand how Brexit sits in relation to what has come before.   Read more from Adrienne about the removal of EU citizenship in this article for The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/britons-shouldnt-get-their-hopes-up-about-keeping-eu-citizenship-after-brexit-91501)

From market-based to fundamental rights in understandings of EU citizenship

In the latest of our episodes focussed on Brexit in the real lives of British citizens living in the EU27, Michaela is joined over the Internet by Debbie Williams, founder of BrExpats Hear our Voice (https://brexpatshov.com). She explains how she went from never having been involved in politics beyond voting to founding this group that has had an increasing presence in campaigns for citizens’ rights. They discuss her concerns about the ways in which the human cost of Brexit has been overlooked in the negotiations, the difficulties of getting the voices of those who rights are being transformed heard, and the importance of standing up for these rights at this point in time. And on a personal level, she highlights how Brexit has changed her, the way she looks at the world and caused her to question things that she might previously have taken for granted.

Brexit in the real lives of British citizens living in the EU27: Debbie Williams, founder of BrExpats hear our voice

In this episode, Michaela is joined by Lorenza Antonucci (University of Birmingham) and Simone Varriale (University of Lincoln). They discuss the conclusions of their recent paper Unequal Europe, Unequal Brexit ( https://research.birmingham.ac.uk/portal/files/69623578/Antonucci_Varriale_Unequal_Europe_Current_Sociology_2019.pdf ). In particular, they focus on their call to recognise that an understanding of the inequalities at the heart of Brexit need to account for Britain’s position within the European project and the different stakes of member states within the European project. Focusing on the case of EU migrants in the UK, they discuss how the relationships between the UK and other member states have shaped EU migration flows—through the demands and opportunities of the labour market—and inspired migrant imaginaries. As they stress, remembering that Brexit is variously located within the relationship between Britain and the EU is an important counterpoint to parochial understandings of Brexit and its impacts.  

Brexit inequalities, unequal Europes and unequal Europeans

When you think about Brits Abroad, you probably have some clear ideas about who they are. Pensioners soaking up the sun in Spain is probably top of that list. What if I told you that 79% of the British population living in the EU-27 are of working age and below? Or that Britain has one of the highest emigration rates in the world? This is a podcast all about what Brexit means to and for British citizens living in the EU27. Hosted by Dr Michaela Benson, it focuses on Brexit as it takes place in the context of real lives, busting myths about this forgotten population, and engages with questions about migration, identity, citizenship and belonging (with a few pondering on how to do sociological research about Brexit thrown in for good measure). It is produced as part of the research project BrExpats: freedom of movement, citizenship and Brexit in the lives of Britons resident in the European Union, led by Dr. Michaela Benson (Goldsmiths University, London) and funded by the UK and a Changing Europe, Brexit Priority Grant Scheme.

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Brexit Brits Abroad

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