Depression and Engagement in a Brexit Context: The Role of Job Type and UK Citizenship Status

Abstract

This study explores the interplay between UK citizenship status, the nature of jobs for employees in the UK, and the potential role that these factors play in influencing job related depressed well-being states and work engagement in the context of a looming Brexit (where the UK proposed to leave the EU). In two waves of data collection, across six months, we survey EU and UK citizens working in the UK and test a moderated mediation model. Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory as an explanatory framework, we demonstrate that, compared to employees with UK citizenship status, EU migrants based in the UK without citizenship show higher levels of depression and that this is followed by lower levels of work engagement. Crucially, we also show an indirect relationship between being in a more vulnerable (low skilled) job and lowered work engagement mediated through states of depression, which is moderated by UK citizenship status (i.e. only significant for EU citizens who do not have citizenship). Finally, we also show that EU migrants without UK citizenship exhibit greater reductions in work engagement following an increase in depression over time compared to employees who do have the security of UK citizenship status.