Negotiating Belongings in a post-Brexit landscape
Summary
On June 23, 2016, Britain held a referendum resulting in the decision for its departure from the European Union. Through ethnographic exploration and life-history interviews, this thesis explores the experiences of EU citizens from Accession 8 countries living in the UK, in relation to their sense of belonging . The aim is to demonstrate how individuals build temporal trajectories to understand their current being through making sense of their past, present and future. These trajectories relate not only to personal aspirations but are confined to varying collective constellations which determine one s ability to move forward . This thesis presents national political projects of belonging and the ascription of collective identity (stereotype) as two influential broader processes which have felt intensified since Brexit. The future validity of European citizenship is now unknown, and an increasingly anti-immigration rhetoric is present throughout society. This has caused participants to feel disassociated the temporal trajectory, rendering them into a state of suspension , which is characterised by existential immobility, powerlessness, and loss. The thesis argues that whilst it is increasingly recognised in academia that people can have multiple forms of belonging and should not be assigned to categories, this does not always translate into wider society. Instead, Britain s departure from the European Union and the governments silence around their action on EU citizen rights symbolises a return to more normative and rigid understandings of belonging into simple categories of British and non-British .