“Should we exit before Brexit?” Hungarian workers’ experiences & future plans in post-referendum Britain

Ayodele, I

Abstract

Growing concerns over the large influx of Central and Eastern European migrant workers to the UK since the enlargement of the EU in 2004 played a major role in the result of the EU Referendum in June 2016. Now, in the era of Brexit, when millions of EU citizens are in a limbo and uncertain about their future rights here in the UK, it is the right time to explore their experiences and highlight the perceived impacts of Brexit on migrant workers’ lives.
Previous research mainly focused on CEE migrants’ workers labour market experiences prior to the Referendum. Moreover, most of these studies recruited Polish participants, as they are the single largest group from the CEE region in the United Kingdom. Contributing to this gap, the present research, employed a qualitative approach to explore Hungarian workers’ labour market pre- and post- Referendum experiences and trajectories in the context of Brexit. As such, ten semi-structured interviews were conducted and subsequently analysed, using thematic analysis. The focus of the analysis was directed toward the individual experiences of participants and the perceived impact of Brexit on their experiences and future plans in the United Kingdom.
Detailed discussion of the findings is presented under four master themes:
“Motivations to Migrate”; “Upward mobility within the labour market”; “Making sense of the result”; and “Impacts and Future Intentions”. Limitations and strengths of the study, alongside with suggestions for future research are considered in the final chapter.

Citation

Ayodele, I. (in press). “Should we exit before Brexit?” Hungarian workers’ experiences & future plans in post-referendum Britain. (Dissertation). University Of Salford

• Thesis Type: Dissertation
• Acceptance Date: Jun 7, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jun 24, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 24, 2019