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Llags of EU and Great Britain

Brexit sparked Finnish migrants’ interest in politics

“The 2016 Brexit referendum led to the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. Among Finnish migrants living in the UK, this sparked a whole new interest in politics,” University Researcher Tiina Sotkasiira says. They actively sought information in traditional media and on social media platforms, trying to figure out the best course of action in the new situation.

The implications of the Brexit referendum on EU citizens living in the UK, and on British citizens living in EU countries, was the theme of the Brexit, Migration and Mobility seminar held online on 13 November. Together with her colleague Anna Gawlewicz from the University of Glasgow, Sotkasiira has studied how Finns and Poles living in the UK viewed their ties with their local community.

“After the referendum, social relations became economized; they began to be looked at from the viewpoint of economic value,” Sotkasiira says.

Social relations in people’s private sphere of life began to gain instrumental value, and people started to consider the benefit of these relations, should they choose to stay in the UK.

“Things that used to stay in the sphere of family and otherwise private life now became political, and they were extensively discussed in public.  People started to realise that decisions pertaining to their family life were increasingly influenced by, e.g., the government, the media, and public discourse.”

Logic of moving will change

Brexit will change the logic of moving to the UK. University Researcher Saara Koikkalainen has interviewed Finns living in London and compared their experiences to those originating from Spain and Poland. The motivations behind EU citizens’ decisions to move to London vary.

“For instance, freedom of movement within the EU gives people the chance to move abroad for the summer without making any special arrangements and to start looking for a job once in their new country.  Due to Brexit, however, moving to the UK now requires more careful planning and one must secure a relevant visa and a work permit in advance.”

Koikkalainen could identify three distinct groups among EU citizens who had moved to London, with the two extremes being those who had moved to the UK spontaneously, and those who had planned their move with great care.

“We need to be able to give a face to stories about how the new situation affects these intra-European migrants and their unique life stories.”

Immigration-related inequalities become visible

Sotkasiira points out that Brexit has made various immigration-related inequalities visible. Finns planning on moving to, or staying in the UK, are now faced with the same requirements as all groups of immigrants, including those relating to residence permits and sufficient income.

“Brexit has opened people's eyes to the fact that even us Finns, who are thought to hold one of the best passports in the world, are susceptible to travel- and immigration-related restrictions.”

According to Koikkalainen, Brexit has also been a wake-up call when it comes to applying for citizenship.

“Earlier, there wasn’t much added value for EU citizens to apply for citizenship of the country they were living in. Things are now different and for example British people living in Finland have submitted a record number of citizenship applications. For them, it is a way to retain their rights associated with EU citizenship, including freedom of movement within the EU.”

In the seminar, researchers Nicol Savinetti and Peter Holley, both from the UK but living in Copenhagen and Helsinki, presented results from the Brits in Europe survey, which extensively charted the feelings caused by Brexit in British migrants living in a total of 24 different European countries. Researcher Evi-Carita Riikonen from the University of Eastern Finland, on the other hand, gave a presentation on how Brexit has made translocal life increasingly difficult and increased feelings of otherness in people’s new home countries.

The seminar constituted part of research carried out within the University of Eastern Finland's strategic profile area Cultural Encounters, Mobilities and Borders, and it was funded by the VERA Centre for Russian and Border Studies.