Background
Many residents of the United Kingdom have had the opportunity in recent years to take active part in various elections and referenda. Nevertheless, rights to participate have always been afforded to some, while excluding others. In many cases, those excluded were ethnic minorities or non-national residents, whose lives were equally affected by the outcomes of the plebiscite. In some cases, exclusion appears in the form of ‘self-exclusion’. For instance, studies into ethnic minorities’ political participation indicate the low level of participation in the general elections (Heath and Khan, 2012); similarly, qualified migrants’ participation in local elections, or general participation in the EU elections have also been shown to be restricted (Shaw, 2009; Stockemer, 2012). While there is a growing interest on migrant politics and mobilisation (see special edition of Ethnic and Racial Studies by Però and Solomos, 2010), still further research is needed to investigate the scale of mobilisation and political participation of certain migrants’ groups. This research proposal aims to fill a significant gap in this respect. The first stage of the research (2012-2015) has focused on the mobilisation, participation and attitudes of Polish migrants – the largest non-UK born EU national group – in the Scottish Independence referendum and the subsequent UK national elections. This stage has produced significant findings in respect to understanding the level of engagement of adult Polish migrants living in Scotland in political processes by looking at their participation as well as attitudes to the Scottish independence referendum held in September 2014 (see Piętka-Nykaza and McGhee, 2015). Consequently, by looking at their attitudes regarding the UK national elections – in which non-UK citizen Polish migrants did not have suffrage – valuable new data and theoretical hypotheses were achieved concerning the effects of uneven access to political rights and decision power (see McGhee and Pietka-Nykaza, Forthcoming) Following the extraordinary event of the Scottish Independence referendum, the upcoming referendum on the UK’s EU membership (Brexit) is yet another event of unique significance for political and sociological analysis. While the politics of the Referendum ¬- and more broadly the UK’s renegotiation of its position in the EU -– is a very topical emerging research area (Bevir, Daddow and Schnapper, 2015; Vail, 2015), its sociological aspects and consequences remain unexplored. The second stage of the research (2015-2016) is aimed at filling this gap.
Non-UK citizen EU nationals living in the UK are arguably the population potentially most affected by the outcome of the Brexit Referendum, yet they will not have a right to vote. This exclusion may lead to other forms of mobilisation and rights-seeking, such as naturalisation. The research will explore these possibilities by expanding the scope of the fist-stage study to include further migrant groups and UK regions. With the aim of generating comparative data, the study examines the political engagement and attitudes towards the Referendum of both ‘Accession’ country nationals (those whose countries have joined the EU since 2004) and nationals of ‘old’ member states, in both Scotland and England. As such this study will focus on:
- the respondents’ views of the advantages and disadvantages of the naturalisation process;
- their thoughts on the option and possible consequences of obtaining dual nationality;
- their concerns about the UK’s possible exit from the EU and its implications for their rights and obligations within the UK; as well as the rights and obligations of their children, if any;
- and their thoughts on the possible return to their home country in such eventuality
Design
The research will comprise an online survey questionnaire with 400 to 1200 adult EU migrants living in the UK. The tried and tested survey design from the first stage of the study will be used, with updated questions relevant to stage 2. In order to attract respondents with differing levels of English fluency, the survey questionnaire will be translated into the languages of the most numerous EU national groups living in the UK. According to the latest ONS statistics twelve EU nationalities (six from old member states and six from new member states) are represented in the top 20 of non-British population resident in the UK. For the comparative aims of the study at least six and a maximum of twelve EU national groups will be specifically targeted with questionnaires in their respective language: Polish, Romanian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Lithuanian, Latvian, Hungarian, Dutch and Slovak. The English version of the survey will be available to any EU national who satisfies the UK residence requirement.
The survey questionnaire will be uploaded on isurvey and the link to the survey will be distributed through migrant community organisations and online communities. The database of Polish community organisations compiled as part of stage 1 of the study will be expanded in stage 2 to include other EU nationals’ organisations. These will be compiled based on the result of internet searches. The community organisations will be identified as relevant if one of their remit concerns a target language, culture or history. Once the list of the organisations will be compiled, each organisation will be approached by email (followed by phone conversation) where the project aims and the organisation involvement (i.e. distributing the link to online survey through all their members) will be explained in detail. Also, the link to the isurvey will be advertised on migrants’ community online networks and websites, in which case first contact will be made with forum moderators/organisers and permission will be sought to distribute the link to the survey.
To test and evaluate the clarity and understanding of survey questions in the languages relevant to the study, the survey questionnaire will be piloted with up to 10 postgraduate students at the University of Southampton.
References
Bevir, Mark, Oliver Daddow, and Pauline Schnapper. 2015. “Introduction: Interpreting British European Policy.” JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 53(1):1-17.
Heath, A. and Khan, O, 2012, Ethnic Minority British Election Study – Key Findings, Runnymede Trust, Available at: http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/EMBESbriefingFINALx.pdf, Accessed on 10 March 2014
McGhee, Derek, and Emilia Pietka-Nykaza. Forthcoming. “From Privileged to Thwarted Stakeholders: Polish Migrants’ Perceptions of the Scottish Independence Referendum 2014 and the UK General Election in 2015.” Citizenship Studies.
Però, D. and Solomos, J., 2010, Introduction: Migrant Politics and Mobilisation: Exclusion, Engagement, Incorporation, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 33:1, p. 1-18
Piętka-Nykaza, Emilia, and Derek McGhee. 2015. “Stakeholder citizenship: the complexities of Polish migrants’ citizenship attachments in the context of the Scottish independence referendum.” Citizenship Studies. DOI: 10.1080/13621025.2015.1054789 , p. 1-15
Shaw, Jo. 2009. “Political Rights and Multilevel Citizenship in Europe.” Pp. 29-50 in Illiberal liberal states: immigration, citizenship, and integration in the EU, edited by Elspeth Guild, C. A. Groenendijk, and Sergio Carrera. Farnham: Ashgate.
Stockemer, Daniel. 2012. “Citizens’ support for the European Union and participation in European Parliament elections.” European Union Politics 13(1):26-46.
Vail, Mark I. 2015. “Between One‐Nation Toryism and Neoliberalism: The Dilemmas of British Conservatism and Britain’s Evolving Place in Europe.” JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 53(1):106-22.