| dc.description.abstract | The majority of studies concerning the UK’s Brexit have focused on its impacts on the UK
domestic population. However, Brexit is much more than a domestic issue; it is also a
unique occurrence in EU history that a member state leaves the EU for the first time. For the
785,000 British expatriates living in the continental EU, Brexit entails the first ever en-masse
loss of European citizenship. This may consequent a choice between Britain and Europe,
between national and supranational identities. European identity has long been contested,
but if expats from the most Eurosceptic EU member state come to feel more European than
British, Brexit may prove to be a litmus test for the existence of just such a European
identity.
As such, this current study asked in what ways the Brexit process of February 2016 to March
2019 had affected identifications with Europe of British expats living in the Netherlands. The
study used a case study of the Netherlands, interviewing a diverse sample of twelve British
expats. The interviews used a novel, narrative, semi-structured approach, which guided
expats through their responses to four main events of the Brexit process in order to track
changes to their connections with the UK, connections with Europe and practical
connections (housing, employment, finance). The interviews were each about an hour long
and conducted between March and April 2019.
The study’s results corroborated previous work on Brexit and expats, finding that as the
Brexit process proceeded, Britain was viewed more negatively and the expats’
identifications with it weakened. However, the current study went further, finding that
expats’ identifications with Europe strengthened during the Brexit process. By basing the
research on the Brexit timeline, the study tracked when these identification changes
occurred. It found that the expats’ negative identifications with the UK occurred first,
immediately after the Leave result of June 2016. However, the strengthening identifications
with Europe, only occurred in the later stages of the Brexit process, during the Brexit
negotiations of 2018 and early 2019, as the threat of Brexit to the sustainability of their
European lifestyles became clearer. This was demonstrated through actions such as an
increasing necessity to learn Dutch, concern for the ability to move to another EU country in
the future and finding ways to retain EU citizenship.
In sum, the shifting identifications of the expats from Britain to Europe show that it is
possible for people from even the most Eurosceptic EU populations to identify with the EU.
However, the timing of the identity shift is significant because it suggests that a person only
becomes aware of their identifications with the EU and Europe when their EU benefits are
removed from them. Otherwise, Europe is perhaps taken for granted as a part of everyday
life, without enough salience to encourage identifications, attachment or loyalty. | |
