Paper short abstract:

Despite the perception of migrant categories as fixed, they are contested, contingent and shaped by the relationships between the state, its citizens, and migrants. This paper discusses the fluidity of migration categories as policy and looks at its effect on migrant workers in post-Brexit UK.

Paper long abstract:

Migration categories are often perceived in policy and public debates as stable, fixed and mutually exclusive categories. However, they are contested, contingent and fluid; a person can move between different migration categories over time. An example of this are EU citizens who, in general, were for many years able to come to the UK to work and to live without facing any restrictions and without being subject to immigration control, but who have since the 2016 Brexit referendum become subject to immigration regulations. Following the full enforcement of Brexit from January 2021, EU citizens in the UK have lost their free movement rights and have to apply for a settled status or a visa. The rhetoric of control over borders, together with the hostile environment implemented by the British government, have the aim of deterring migrants (both ‘forced’ and voluntary’) from coming to the UK. However, the debate in policy and public discourse around migration overlooks both the lived experience and strategies of migrants and the actual needs of the British economy for migrants as mobile labour. In reaction to significant labour shortages in several key sectors in summer 2021, the British government introduced several new temporary visa schemes for migrant workers. Drawing on our ongoing research of labour mobility after Brexit, we use anthropological perspectives to critically reflect on the fluidity, changeability, and temporariness of migration categories as policy, which allows the government to perform its ‘tough stance’ on immigration while letting some mobility in through the back door.