The EU migrants political participation at the local level in post-brexit England: A comparative analysis of the institutional effects in four local authorities.

Abstract

The Migration Observatory estimates that at the end of 2022 the number of EU-born migrants in the UK was 4 million, 6% of the population and 37% of all foreign-born residents. EU migrants who resided in the UK before Brexit still retain the right to vote and stand in elections at the local level. However, despite representing well over 10% of the population in many British towns, little is known about their engagement with local authorities and their participation in local politics. The limited data available are not particularly comforting. EU migrants’ electoral registration rate is lower than both British citizens. Furthermore, anecdotal evidence suggests that the number of elected Councillors born in the EU is extremely low compared to the size of the EU migrants’ population, with only a handful of cases mostly concentrated in London. Besides being at odds with democratic principles, the political under representation of such a large minority is also problematic from a democratic practice perspective. The lack of responsiveness of local authorities to EU migrants’ political demands can lead to the social and economic marginalisation of the most vulnerable individuals. Meanwhile, at the national level, the quick rise of grassroots organisations advocating EU migrants’ rights, like 'The 3million' and 'Settled', demonstrated how in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum EU migrants made their entrance into the British political arena, but questions remain about their relevance beyond Brexit. This thesis reports the results of a mixed-methods study that fills this gap in the literature about migrants’ political participation. The methodology applied was two-fold: the first phase consisted in a web content analysis (WCA) of the administrative support offered during the EUSS period by the 341 English local authorities; the second phase was a comparative analysis of four English local authorities. The WCA revealed how nationwide the support for EU migrants was scarce and mostly lead by the results of the Brexit referendum (Remain councils were more supportive than Leave councils). Then, using the WCA results I selected four local councils (Coventry, Haringey, Portsmouth, and Torbay) as a sample for a small-n in-depth comparative analysis. This included conducting 50 semi-structured interviews with EU migrants, EU migration experts, council officers, and Councillors. The comparative part of the study showed that English local authorities tend to consider EU migrants as ‘transient economic migrants’, self-sufficient and disinterested in local politics. These perceptions, based on anecdotes and personal biases rather than actual data or repeated experiences, make EU migrants less worth engaging than non-EU migrant communities, seen instead as more permanent and committed to their host society. As a result, council actors (elected Councillors and council officers) tend to neglect EU migrants in favour of non-EU migrant communities with regard to integration policies, administrative support, outreach, and political campaigning. Councils’ neglect, cultural distrust of politics and politicians, and limited ‘bridging’ social capital make most EU migrants politically quiescent. Their invisibility to council actors creates a feedback loop that reinforces the initial perceptions of EU migrants being temporary residents with no interest in local politics, which further fuels political marginalisation. Moreover, because of their former status of mobile citizens, EU migrants appear to be lacking the social capital that has helped other migrant communities to self-organise and become vocal political constituencies for British local institutions. Some of them even believe that they should not engage with local politics because they are ‘guest’, not residents. I called this phenomenon the ‘Mirror Illegitimacy’, as it replicates the arguments used by council’s actors to justify their inactivity with EU migrants. However, a surprising silver lining may come from Brexit: interviews with Councillors hinted to the fact that EU migrants who stayed despite Brexit or moved to the UK after Brexit might be now seen as permanent rather than transient residents with the same ‘civic legitimacy’ of other non-EU migrant groups, hence opening an institutional engagement path that could lead to their political incorporation. The proposed theoretical model presented at the end of the thesis posits that institutional and political neglect render EU migrants invisible to public authorities and generally disengaged with local politics. This negative effect is on the one hand reinforced by ‘Mirror Illegitimacy’, and on the other possibly mitigated by the ‘Brexit Effect’. These findings raise important questions about the future political integration of European citizens in post-Brexit England and about the capacity of local governments to account for their views and needs in their decision-making process. Although the qualitative nature of the enquiry does not allow a generalisation of the results beyond the four cases , it represents a useful starting point for a large-n quantitative analysis to verify if the theoretical model developed in this thesis is applicable across the whole UK. Future comparative studies should look into similarities or differences between the political behaviours of EU migrants in the UK and EU migrants in current EU member states. The thesis concludes with four key recommendations to local government to increase EU migrants’ political participation: inform them about their political rights; proactively engage with visible EU communities; include them in integration and welfare programmes; and celebrate them through institutional discourse and symbolic acts.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Michele Fabio Zadra: orcid.org/0000-0001-8367-9466

ORCID for Valentina Cardo: orcid.org/0000-0002-1993-6058

ORCID for Amos Channon: orcid.org/0000-0003-4855-0418

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