After the initial shock and disappointment of the Brexit Referendum result in June 2016, EU citizens in the UK faced a difficult dilemma. Louise Ryan writes that quite early on many began to devise strategies to secure their status in a post-Brexit Britain, including acquiring Permanent Residency and even British Citizenship

Ryan, Louise

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2017-5-22EU citizens in the UK: after the shock comes the strategy tosecure statusblogs.lse.ac.uk /brexit/2017/05/22/eu-citizens-in-the-uk-after-the-shock-comes-the-strategy-to-secure-status/After the initial shock and disappointment of the Brexit Referendum result in June 2016, EU citizens in theUK faced a difficult dilemma. Louise Ryan writes that quite early on many began to devisestrategies to secure their status in a post-Brexit Britain, including acquiring Permanent Residencyand even British Citizenship. After the Brexit vote, many EU citizens felt rejected and unwanted and were tempted to pack upand leave, but they also began to realise just how much they had been embedding in Britishsociety. Their initial plans for short term and temporary stays had been slowly transforming overtime. Gradually, many had become far more settled here than they ever expected or even realised.As Sonia, a Polish laboratory technician, told me: ‘Whaaat, how did that happen?’ The unexpected BrexitReferendum result suddenly forced these migrants to address their future plans and to make some unanticipateddecisions.Remembering 2004Looking back now to the heady days of optimism in 2004, when 8 new member countries joined the EuropeanUnion, it is hard to believe how much has changed. Following EU enlargement and the flows of new migrants to thiscountry, many academics, politicians and media commentators predicted that this would be a new form of transient,short term and temporary mobility. Apparently, workers would use their mobility rights to go back and forth acrossborders. They would work for short periods, save their money and go back home to be reunited with family andfriends. However, those of us with longer memories or who had researched earlier waves of migrants were sceptical.Learning from HistoryPrevious generations of migrants to Britain had often expected to stay only for short periods. The mantra of ‘I onlycame for a year’ is common among Irish migrants who eventually ended up living most of their lives in Britain.Earlier waves of migrants, especially those with citizenship status or mobility rights, including Commonwealthcitizens, may have been expected to be temporary but there is evidence from history to show that they tend to settlein and stay for many years, if not permanently. Similarly, many new European citizens expected to only stay in Britainfor a year. As Patryk, an IT specialist, told me: ‘Everybody I know from Poland, every time they come over here,they’re like “just go there for a year, two years”. But it soon became apparent to some researchers that families werearriving, children were starting to attend local schools and gradually migrant households were embedding in localneighbourhoods.1/3Centrala, a Central-East European cultural centre in Birmingham, image by@RochDW, licensed under Public Domain Mark 1.0Moving in and moving upThere is abundant evidence that many East and Central European migrants experienced initial de-skilling in the UKlabour market. New arrivals, often with limited English language proficiency, took any job they could find. However,while some were stuck in those positions, others slowly began to improve their economic status. Those withparticular skills, qualifications and linguistic ability got better jobs and eventually found more skilled and professionalemployment.Keeping their plans 0penHowever, most European citizens continued to keep their plans ‘open’. The idea of returning home at some point inthe future remained on the horizon. Few regarded themselves as permanent residents in the UK. Even fewer hadthought about getting British citizen. Research with French migrants, just a few years ago, showed that theyconsidered the need for British citizen utterly unnecessary and were even surprised that we would ask them such aquestion. They felt secure in with their status and the mobility rights as European citizens. But, of course, Brexit haschanged all that.Changing times, changing statusI have been researching different groups of European migrants in the UK for almost 20 years. Until 2016, most of myparticipants had never thought about applying for British citizenship. The Referendum, literally overnight, turned EUcitizens into migrants with uncertain and potentially insecure status. When I re-interviewed some of my participantsafter the referendum it was quickly apparent that their plans had changed. Many felt a profound sense of sadnessabout the Referendum debates and the open hostility towards migrants. Karina who works in the NHS said: ‘I wasdevastated when the results were announced. It was very difficult not to see it as an expression of xenophobia andanti-migrant feelings’. Several even felt fearful as hate crimes increased. However, they also began to realise thatreturning home was not possible. Returning to rural Poland, for example, in twenty years to retire sounded attractivebut to go back now as a 30-year-old nurse or teacher was simply not financially viable. Despite the vitriol of theReferendum, most of the people I spoke to said their family’s future was here in Britain. Mateusz who is a mental2/3health nurse stated: ‘my home, family, work are all here’.Several participants had children in local schools and although they spoke the home language fluently, parents wereworried that moving back to a completely different educational system would be very disruptive and challenging.Some people had partners from other nationalities, including British, and thus language was a barrier to moving toother countries. Although a few mentioned Canada or Australia as places they would consider moving to in thefuture, visa restrictions were an obstacle to relocating.Migrants can’t stay in a state of mobility and uncertainty foreverFor most of the migrants I spoke to, the only viable option was to secure their status in the UK and continue to liveand work in this country. Most either had or were about to apply for residency and eventually for citizenship. Theystill hoped to return back home at some point in the future, when they retired or when their children had completededucation. But for now, the key priority was to secure their right to remain in Britain.What can we learn from all this?These observations challenge many of the initial assumptions about temporariness, transience and mobility.Migrants can’t stay in a state of mobility and uncertainty forever. Over time people begin embedding slowly andalmost without realising it. But this should not surprise us. Any understanding of earlier waves of migrants from the19th and through the 20th century shows that people almost always stay for longer than intended. Germany learnedthat ‘guest’ workers tend to settle. Politicians in this country also need to learn that you cannot turn migration on andoff like a tap. As the old adage states: we asked for workers and people came.This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of LSE Brexit, nor of the London School of Economics.Professor Louise Ryan is a Professorial Research Fellow in the Dept of Sociological Studies at the University ofSheffield and is also co-director (with Dr Majella Kilkey) of the Migration Research Group.Copyright © 2015 London School of Economics3/3

EU citizens in the UK: after the shock comes the strategy to secure status

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