Aside from the severe economic impact from Brexit that is developing in Europe, the UK’s referendum has created an extreme socio-cultural effect on the European continent centering around immigration, which can be seen with two main issues: refugees and relations within the United Kingdom.
Although Brexit has not gone into full force, it is certain that immigration will be affected. While on the surface Brexit appeared to be an economic issue, it was immediately underpinned by the topic of immigration, demonstrated by the demographics of the voting results. Due to the minimized immigration restrictions that are in place under the European Union, many Europeans have moved in and out of Britain. One of the most notable results is the high number of Eastern European immigrants living in the UK, which caused many Brits to believe that immigrants were taking jobs and houses from them. This created a belief that immigrants were forcing the National Health Care and educational services to be put under pressure, and created general racial tensions (Tilford, 2016). The number of immigrants from the nations that have joined the EU since 2004, including but not limited to Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Croatia, has increased dramatically in recent years. Thus, the British people who opposed immigration generally voted for the UK to leave the EU. Since then, many have called this voting pattern xenophobic or racist; however, the new Prime Minister, conservative Theresa May, aims to abide by the vote and tighten immigration restrictions. This has led to questioning whether or not immigrants from those same countries will still be able to move to the UK after Brexit is put into action. Fearing potential immigration restrictions, as promised by May, many Eastern Europeans have begun to immigrate to the UK before the Brexit negotiations are over (“EU Migration…” 2016) This presents an ironic possible outcome of the referendum: more Eastern Europeans may move to Britain in fear of closing borders, although the underlying intention of the vote was to keep immigrants out.
Although many minority groups have been, and are going to be, affected by the social consequences of Brexit, those who have been forced to leave war-torn countries in search of better lives have arguably suffered the greatest blow. According to the UN’s Refugee Convention’s process known as “non-refoulement,” countries cannot return refugees to their place of origin if there’s a risk of persecution or death. Although the European Union had promised to aid 160,000 refugees with resettling last year, fear of refugees exploded in the United Kingdom after the country announced the “Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Program (VPR), which aims to grant humanitarian protection to 20,000 refugees through 2020,” (Yu Hsi Lee, 2016). This fear drove the VPR to only accept about 60 per 100,000 applicants last year, four times less than the EU average, according New Statesman (Wigmore, 2016). As the United Kingdom was preparing to vote on the EU referendum, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) campaigned on stricter immigration policies and the phrase “Take back control of our borders” in response to the refugee crisis gripping the entire world (Yu Hsi Lee, 2016). Thus, the problem here is not only a social one, but an internal political one as well. The situation intensified when member of parliament Jo Cox was shot, stabbed, and killed in Birstall, West Yorkshire after publicly supporting remaining in the EU and welcoming refugees.
Moreover, the issues of immigration and nationality have arisen in terms of the UK’s relationships with nations like Scotland, Ireland, and Northern Ireland and the rest of the EU. It has always been clear that although England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are part of the same state, they are each their own separate nations. As demonstrated by the Scottish Referendum in 2014, where 55% voted that Scotland should not be an independent state, all members of the UK were more or less content under the UK-EU system. Immediately after Brexit, the leaders of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland all began discussing the possibility of subsequent referendums for each nation (Morris, 2016). It is apparent that each of these nations see more value in being part of the European Union than the United Kingdom. On a cultural level, this is a pressing issue. Citizens now have new questions of national identity. This is best shown by the number of British citizens now attempting to acquire Irish passports. On both a national and local level, people are doing whatever they can to maintain ties with the European Union. Although the future of the UK is still up in the air, there are two main possibilities. First, the UK will remain intact, meaning that its nations may suffer from the loss of contact with the EU and its citizens may question their identity with Britain. Second, the UK will break up: Scotland will become its own sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland may reunite, and the UK will simply become England and Wales.
Why does it matter?
There are many ways that Brexit directly or indirectly affects current issues in Europe and in the rest of the world. Domestically, Brexit has changed British national identity and what it means to be British. Certain groups who had previously been considered part of the British community are now being ostracized and even targeted simply because of their race or religion. According to the UK Home Office, “The number of racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded by the police in July 2016 was 41% higher than in July 2015,” (Weber, 2016) These numbers are especially scary for members of the LGBTQ+ community in the UK, who experienced an estimated 147% increase in hate crimes since last year. Even more disturbing has been the rise of white supremacist groups, as they have begun to feel powerful, preaching xenophobia and marching with swastikas through the streets of London and other major cities, ripping headscarves off of women and swearing at young Polish children (Lusher, 2016).
In other words, Brexit has created strong tensions, most of which centering around identity politics. Aside from the outright racism and hate crimes in the UK, a lot of attention has been drawn to various social groups in the rest of Europe. France now struggles to deal with the masses of refugees and immigrants trying to cross the English Channel to the UK. The large migrant camp on the coast of France, called the “Calais Jungle,” was recently cleared out, showing France’s decision to force the UK border to be responsible for the migrants. Overall, Brexit has forceful social implications, including the idea that discrimination towards minority groups is justified not only in the UK, but throughout the EU. Brexit is closely related to issues like the Syrian refugee crisis and the terror attacks in France; at this point, it seems as though any development made in Brexit may have an affect on these issues, and vice versa.
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| The Calais Jungle, a symbol of Europe's struggle to deal with immigration |
In terms of economics, it is possible that Brexit will create a beneficial situation for the UK, the EU, and perhaps the rest of the world. It is equally possible that Brexit may fatally damage the current state of the world. In terms of socio-cultural relations, there is only one possibility that seems likely, which is that Brexit will be inherently negative. As can already be seen with the increasing traces of hate crimes and discrimination, Brexit was a decision made in order to benefit a specific group: white, English-born people. In light of the recent election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency, Brexit appears to be the start of a trend. As in the United States after the election, Brexit has allowed racism and xenophobia in the UK to become front and center as these ideals have been seemingly publicly accepted by the majority of the country as evidenced by the results. Perhaps now, other nations will vote to begin independence movements, like Scotland and Northern Ireland, or they will start a chain reaction and vote to reflect widespread feelings of xenophobia and racism, like in the United States.
References
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Lusher, Adam. (2016, July 28). Racism unleashed: True extent of the 'explosion of blatant hate' that followed Brexit result revealed. The INDEPENDENT. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-racism-uk-post-referendum-racism-hate-crime-eu-referendum-racism-unleashed-poland-racist-a7160786.html
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Very interesting post! Brexit as you mention, can either aid the world or damage the world which is kind of scary since it is not certain. Great insight!
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