This article aims to examine the complex interrelationship between identity and immigration in the United Kingdom (UK) in the context of Brexit. It analyzes the background of immigration in the UK as well as multilayered notions of identity and integration. Using the framework of securitization advanced by the Copenhagen School of thought, this study questions if and how immigration has been perceived as a threat to British identity and how this perception has influenced the decision to leave the European Union. It hypothesizes that anti-immigrant sentiment, culminating in Brexit, may be the product of securitization in the societal sphere, namely of identity. This framework aims to provide an alternative understanding of Brexit by analyzing how perceptions of threat in the societal sector can influence major political decisions.
AsariEva-Maria, HalikiopoulouDaphne, and StevenMock.2008. ‘British National Identity and the Dilemmas of Multiculturalism’. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics14(1): 1–28. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13537110701872444.
2.
BaleTim.2013. ‘More and More Restrictive-But Not Always Populist: Explaining Variation in the British Conservative Party’s Stance on Immigration and Asylum’. Journal of Contemporary European Studies21(1): 25–37. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2013.766474.
3.
BBC News. 2015, September1. ‘EU Referendum: Farage says Immigration will be Key’. BBC News. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-34110960.
4.
BuzanBarry, OleWæver and Jaap deWilde.1998. Security: A New Framework of Analysis. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
5.
CascianiDominic.2015, October6. ‘What’s the Direction of Tory Immigration Policy’?BBC News. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34456622.
6.
CinnirellaMarco, and SairaHamilton.2007. ‘Are all Britons reluctant Europeans? Exploring European identity and attitudes to Europe among citizens of South Asian ethnicity’. Ethnic and Racial Studies30(3): 481–501. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01419870701217530.
7.
ConsterdineErica.2015. ‘Managed Migration under Labour: Organised Public, Party Ideology and Policy Change’. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies41(9): 1433–52. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2015.104571.
8.
FavellAdrian.2001. ‘Multi-ethnic Britain: an exception in Europe’?Patterns of Prejudice35(1): 35–57. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/003132201128811052.
9.
FieldingSteven.1998. ‘Brotherhood and the Brothers: Responses to “coloured” immigration in the British Labour Party c.1951–1965’. Journal of Political Ideologies3(5): 79–97. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13569319808420770.
10.
FieldingSteven, and AndrewGeddes.1998. ‘The British Labour Party and “Ethnic Entryism”: Participation, Integration and the Party Context’. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies24(1): 57–72. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.1998.9976618.
11.
GarrettAmanda.2019. ‘The Refugee Crisis, Brexit, and the Reframing of Immigration in Britain’. Available at: https://www.europenowjournal.org/2019/09/09/the-refugee-crisis-brexit-and-the-reframing-of-immigration-in-britain/.
12.
HaeslyRichard.2005. ‘Rue Britannia or rule Britannia? British identities in Scotland and Wales.’Ethnopolitics4(1): 65–83. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17449050500072580.
13.
HarriesMatthew.2016. ‘Britain’s Dangerous New Politics’. Survival58(6): 31–42. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/00396338.2016.1257177.
14.
HoboltSarah B.2016. ‘The Brexit Vote: A Divided Nation, a Divided Continent’. Journal of European Public Policy23(9): 1259–77. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2016.1225785.
15.
JaspalRusi, and MarcoCinnirella.2013. ‘The Construction of British National Identity among British South Asians’. National Identities15(2): 157–75. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14608944.2012.728206.
16.
KyriakidesChristopher, and SatnamVirdee.2003. ‘Migrant Labour, Racism and the British National Health Service’. Ethnicity and Health8(4): 283–305. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13557850310001631731.
17.
McSweeneyBill.1996. ‘Identity and Security: Buzan and the Copenhagen School’. Review of International Studies22(1): 81–93.
18.
MulveyGareth.2011. ‘Immigration under New Labour: Policy and Effects’. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies37(9): 1477–93. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2011.623622.
19.
NardelliAlberto, and GeorgeArnett.2015, October6. ‘Is Theresa May Right about Immigration’?The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/06/reality-check-is-theresa-may-right-about-immigration.
20.
PitcherBen.2019. ‘Racism and Brexit: NOTEs towards an Antiracist Populism’. Ethnic and Racial Studies42(14): 2490–509. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2019.1623410.
SparrowAndrew.2014, February28. ‘Nigel Farage: Parts of Britain are “Like a Foreign Land”’. The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/28/nigel-farage-ukip-immigration-speech.
23.
SoussiAlasdair.2016, June25. ‘Scotland and Northern Ireland react to Brexit Vote’. Aljazeera. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/06/scotland-northern-ireland-react-brexit-vote-160624192035305.html.
24.
TaggartPaul.2000. Populism. Buckingham: Open University Press.
25.
The Economist. 2016, May21. ‘Integration Nation’. The Economist. Available at: https://www.economist.com/britain/2016/05/21/integration-nation.
26.
UberoiVarun.2015. ‘The “Parekh Report”— National Identities without Nations and Nationalism’. Ethnicities15(4): 509–26. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796815577706.
27.
WintourPatrick.2014, January7. ‘Nigel Farage: Ukip wants Five Year Ban on Immigrants Settling in UK’. The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/07/ukip-ban-immigrants-nigel-farage.
