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The Return of Citizenship? An Empirical Assessment of Legal Integration in Times of Radical Sociolegal Transformation

Authors
Affiliations

Chris Moreh

York St John University

Derek McGhee

Keele University

Athina Vlachantoni

University of Southampton

10.1177/0197918318809924
Abstract
Intra-EU migrants have traditionally faced few pressures or incentives to formalize their “permanent” residence or to naturalize in their EU host countries. Focusing on the United Kingdom and combining an analysis of secondary administrative data and primary online survey data (N = 1,413), this article examines practices and attitudes toward such legal integration in the context of the 2016 EU Referendum among five major EU nationality groups. The analysis reveals that British citizenship is the main legal mechanism of integration among intra-EU migrants in the United Kingdom and that while there is continuity in this respect with pre-Brexit processes, Brexit also has a strong but differential effect as a driver of legal integration. The article identifies some of the main decision-influencing factors shaping legal integration, making a significant contribution to understanding the complexities of integrative processes in times of radical structural change.

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Citation

BibTeX citation:
@article{moreh2020,
  author = {Moreh, Chris and McGhee, Derek and Vlachantoni, Athina},
  title = {The {Return} of {Citizenship?} {An} {Empirical} {Assessment}
    of {Legal} {Integration} in {Times} of {Radical} {Sociolegal}
    {Transformation}},
  journal = {International Migration Review},
  volume = {54},
  number = {1},
  pages = {147-176},
  date = {2020},
  doi = {10.1177/0197918318809924},
  langid = {en},
  abstract = {Intra-EU migrants have traditionally faced few pressures
    or incentives to formalize their “permanent” residence or to
    naturalize in their EU host countries. Focusing on the United
    Kingdom and combining an analysis of secondary administrative data
    and primary online survey data (N = 1,413), this article examines
    practices and attitudes toward such legal integration in the context
    of the 2016 EU Referendum among five major EU nationality groups.
    The analysis reveals that British citizenship is the main legal
    mechanism of integration among intra-EU migrants in the United
    Kingdom and that while there is continuity in this respect with
    pre-Brexit processes, Brexit also has a strong but differential
    effect as a driver of legal integration. The article identifies some
    of the main decision-influencing factors shaping legal integration,
    making a significant contribution to understanding the complexities
    of integrative processes in times of radical structural change.}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Moreh, Chris, Derek McGhee, and Athina Vlachantoni. 2020. “The Return of Citizenship? An Empirical Assessment of Legal Integration in Times of Radical Sociolegal Transformation.” International Migration Review 54 (1): 147–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/0197918318809924.