With a team comprising University of Birmingham’s researchers in the fields of migration and integration, migrants’ rights advocates, community organisers and legal experts, and using a mixed methods approach, this project provides an empirically-rich and in-depth account of how EU families, often including both UK and EU passport holders and members with dual citizenship, experience and plan to respond to Brexit, a baseline from which to further analyse the process family migration decision making following the formal exit from the EU.

Research team:

Professor Nando Sigona (@nandosigona), Principal Investigator and Research Leader for The UK in a Changing Europe initiative. Nando is Chair of International Migration and Forced Displacement and Director of the Institute for Research into Superdiversity at the University of Birmingham. His work has appeared in a range of international academic journals, including Sociology, Social Anthropology, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Identities, Citizenship Studies and Ethnic and Racial Studies. He is author or editor of books and journal’s special issues including  Undocumented Migration (with Gonzales, Franco and Papoutsi, 2019), The Oxford Handbook on Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (with Fiddian Qasmiyeh, Loescher and Long, 2014), Sans Papiers. The social and economic lives of undocumented migrants (with Bloch and Zetter, 2014) and the Within and Beyond Citizenship: Borders, rights and belonging (with Roberto G. Gonzales, 2017). Nando is a founding editor of the journal Migration Studies.  He has written for Newsweek, The Independent, Libération, OpenDemocracy and The Conversation. He has held visiting research positions at University of Oxford, and the European University Institute.

Dr Laurence Lessard Phillips, Co-Investigator. Laurence joined the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) in May 2016 as Research Fellow after working at the University of Manchester and the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute. Her main research interests lie in the perceptions, measurement, and dimensionality of immigrant adaptation; ethnic inequalities in education and the labour market; the transnational behaviour across immigrant generations; and social inequalities and social mobility. Aside from her role on the Eurochildren project, she is currently leading an ESRC research project on pathways to socio-economic and civic-political inclusion of ethnic minorities and the influence of family capital (SDAI Phase 3 2016-2017). She recently completed a project looking into perceptions and dimensionality of immigrant adaptation in academia, policy, and public opinion (Future Research Leaders 2013-2016). Her most recent publications can be found in Sociology, JEMS, and Social Inclusion.

Dr Rachel Humphris, Eurochildren Research Fellow. Rachel is a Lecturer in the School of Social Policy at the University of Birmingham. She is also a research associate at the Centre on Migration Policy and Society, University of Oxford and the UK Coordinator of the European Website on Integration. She has published widely in international academic journals including Geopolitics, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Social Identities. She has completed consultancies for the World Health Organisation, International Organisation on Migration, UNHCR, UNDP and OSCE.

Dr Marie Godin joined the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS)  in October 2017 to work on our project as Research Fellow. She completed her PhD in Social Sciences at the University of East London in December 2015. She is currently a research officer at the Oxford Department of International Development at the University of Oxford where she works on the mobilewelfare project, a research project investigating the links between social protection initiatives, welfare systems and migration within, towards and beyond Europe. Her broader research interests lie in the area of migration and development, with a focus on diaspora engagement and gender, social protection and political activism. Her recent publications include ‘Breaking the silences, breaking the frames: a gendered diasporic analysis of sexual violence in the DRC’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2017) (https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2017.1354166) and Mobile technologies and forced migration written with Giorgia Donà in Bloch, A. and Dona, G. (Eds), Forced Migration: Current Issues and Debates, Routledge (Forthcoming 2018).

Colin Yeo is a barrister specialising in immigration, asylum, nationality and EU free movement law. Before entering private practice he held senior roles at charities the Immigration Advisory Service and Refugee Legal Centre and since 2007 he has edited the Free Movement website at www.freemovement.org.uk

Migrant Voice is a migrant-led charity set up to develop the skills, capacity and confidence of members of migrant communities, including asylum seekers and refugees, to strengthen their voice and representation in the media and public fora to counteract xenophobia and hostility, develop greater understanding and support for migrants’ rights. We are the only migrant-led organisation in the UK set up specifically for the purpose of raising migrants’ voices in the national debate.

The 3 Million Forum is a not for profit group and support network which campaigns to safeguard and guarantee the rights of EU citizens in the UK and British citizens in Europe after Brexit.

It takes its name from the estimated number of EU citizens who moved from another member state to live and work, and have established their life in the UK, many for a very long time.