The Brexit process introduced uncertainties in the migratory future of European Union migrants living in the United Kingdom. Researchers at the Emigration Observatory scalp the issue and conclude that the phenomenon may halt the flow of Portuguese people in his majesty’s lands
The academic article “Brexit and Portuguese emigrants in the United Kingdom”, by Raquel Xavier Rocha, Jennifer McGarrigle and Alina Esteves, revealed yesterday by the Emigration Observatory explores the representations that Portuguese emigrants residing in the United Kingdom make about leaving the United Kingdom. European Union country and the way Brexit has changed its migratory aspirations.
For the researchers, “the Portuguese residing in the United Kingdom drew up plans in a context of lack of guarantee about future rights of residence in the country and, despite the fact that their annual income, the level of education and the time of residence have proved to be decisive in the form as they experience and react to Brexit, it has not changed the migratory aspirations and life plans of emigrants in the United Kingdom ”.
The majority (81%), Portuguese residents in the United Kingdom are against leaving the country from the European Union. The remaining 19%, which include less qualified individuals and with lower wages, “are more influenced by media sensationalism”, concludes the investigation.
The same study reveals that the Portuguese community, in particular individuals in a more unfavorable economic situation, believes they have felt the effects of Brexit since 2018. “It is emigrants who are in more precarious economic situations that, first of all, have less financial possibilities and social support to prove residency in the country and, second, those whose stay in the country is most at risk if the new migratory regime gives, as expected, priority to qualified immigrants and with better socioeconomic status ”, can be read in the document published yesterday by the Emigration Observatory.
Even so, the researchers defend, “most respondents do not consider adopting measures to resist Brexit”, considering that “the opposition to the adoption of protest measures against Brexit may be a result of the temporary nature”.
On the other hand, the United Kingdom remains a desired country worldwide. The Portuguese continue to look for him for his wages, well above those of Portugal. Others, perhaps driven by the objective of achieving a certain socio-economic status and / or professional ambition, seek the country through European mobility, usually spontaneous and temporary.
Also a third of respondents, concludes the academic study, are in favor of leaving the United Kingdom as a result of Brexit, “revealing that the best educated and the best earners are the most likely to leave the UK”.
At the same time, about half wish to remain in the country until the official departure from the European Union and the rest tend to wait for further progress in the negotiations before making a decision, with 80% of respondents choosing to remain in her majesty’s land until March next year. It should be noted that the number of respondents who opted for the “wait and see” approach does so “out of a feeling of insecurity”.
The migratory aspirations of the Portuguese in the United Kingdom, which in recent years have been mostly of a European, young, qualified nature, with spontaneity and unpredictability, academics believe and conclude that Brexit “represents a threat to the continuation of these Portuguese flows to the United Kingdom” .
