Intergenerational narratives of citizenship among EU citizens in the UK after the Brexit referendum

Marie Godin,Nando Sigona

doi:10.1080/01419870.2021.1981964

Marie Godin, Nando Sigona

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2021.1981964

Copy DOI

Abstract

ABSTRACT The share of British naturalization applications by EU citizens increased in the aftermath of the 2016 EU referendum. This article offers unique insights into the range of motivations informing decisions to become British or not among EU families from new and old EU member states. It contributes to scholarship on migrants’ lived experiences of naturalization by adopting a family-centred approach to explore intergenerational and intersectional dynamics in citizenship decision making. Naturalization involves personal and collective reckoning with a sense of loss of status and imagined future. We argue that rather than a “premium”, naturalization is framed by many EU citizens as a response to a perceived loss of status (defensive narrative) and threat (protective narrative). This process is mediated and negotiated within the household, and the narratives of naturalization are embedded in participants’ social positioning and shaped by their social statuses and senses of entitlement.

Highlights

The share of British naturalization applications by EU citizens increased in the aftermath of the 2016 EU referendum
We aim to provide a complex and nuanced understanding of situated citizenship narratives for EU families following the Brexit referendum
We identify two different but not mutually exclusive articulations of the strategic citizenship narrative often used as an umbrella term in the literature: one which is about preserving the status quo, and which can be defined as “defensive” due to the prevailing emphasis on naturalization as a way of mitigating the loss of privileges and sense of entitlement directly produced by the Brexit referendum, and one that we identify as a “protective” which takes into consideration migratory experiences rooted in short- as well as long-term histories of racism and inequalities, in both country of origin and in the UK context, beyond the event of the referendum

Summary

Introduction

The share of British naturalization applications by EU citizens increased in the aftermath of the 2016 EU referendum. This article offers unique insights into the range of motivations informing decisions to become British or not among EU families from new and old EU member states. It contributes to scholarship on migrants’ lived experiences of naturalization by adopting a family-centred approach to explore intergenerational and intersectional dynamics in citizenship decision making. He was born in France, because Sonia wanted to ensure she had some childcare support while looking after the new-born, and Leo only has French citizenship. I want to apply for British citizenship and it is not because of Brexit, it is because I want them to be equal

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion