Rebordering Britain and Britons after Brexit: Survey, Panels and Interviews with British, EU and Non-EU Migrants, 2021-2023

Migration to and from the UK after Brexit was a thirty-nine months project (Jan 2021 – March 2024) funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through their Governance After Brexit Scheme [‘Rebordering Britain and Britons after Brexit’ (MIGZEN), Grant Number: ES/V004530/1] and led by researchers at the University of Birmingham (Lead Research Organisation) and Lancaster University. Brexit brought public and political attention to longstanding concerns within migration and citizenship scholarship, throwing questions of citizenship, migration and belonging into sharp relief; it also affected people's sense of belonging, mobility and settlement plans, as Britons in the EU and EU citizens and non-EU Third Country Nationals (TCN) in the UK found the status and the terms of their residence challenged, their claims to belonging, and access to rights questioned, their settlement plans in jeopardy.

With the end of the Brexit transition period came significant changes in the composition of migration flows to and from the UK, which were further compounded by the geopolitical effects and implications of the tense relationship between China and Hong Kong, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

A collaborative, mixed-method research project involving academics, policy makers, civil society and migrant-led organisations, the project therefore explored the long-term impacts of Brexit and Britain’s shifting position on the world stage on migration to and from the UK, and on migrants’ experiences of these. Through this research, we sought to inform migration policy and debate by providing evidence of the everyday challenges brought by Brexit on individuals and their families living within and across the UK borders.

The project consisted of three phases as follows:
- Phase 1: Survey (‘Migration and Citizenship after Brexit’): conducted in the UK and the EU between 13 December 2021 and 16 January 2022.
- Phase 2: People’s Panel: conducted in the UK and the EU between May and December 2022.
- Phase 3: Interviews with repatriating British citizens: conducted in the UK between May and September 2022;
Interviews with Ukrainians, family and highly skilled migrants in the UK: conducted in the UK between September 2022 and February 2023; and
Interviews with British emigrants: conducted in the UK between April and August 2023.