Precarious lives post Brexit vote

Abstract

Chapter five considers precarity post Brexit vote and migrants’ future plans with the message that precarious legal status and a lack of guarantees are likely to affect EU migrants’ future plans. This chapter investigates the notion of ‘precarity’, particularly in relation to the paid labour market and the migrants within it. The fashioning of precarious workers is analysed and put against the backdrop of EU workforce. Precarity has been much discussed by politicians (Neilson and Rossiter 2008) and in the theorisation of neoliberal labour (Standing, 2011). This discussion provides a comparative perspective on how the socio-political, cultural, demographic and geographic context interlinks with individual migration experiences. I explore whether the process of migration always brings about some element of uncertainty and thus whether precarity and migration are synonyms. The chapter ends with discussion on precarity in contemporary world which is characterised by increased job insecurity which consequently heightens uncertainty about the future. Throughout this chapter I present extracts from interviews with migrants to the UK referring to their lives before 2016 and after as well as their plans and hopes for the future.