Performing whiteness: Central and Eastern European young people’s experiences of xenophobia and racialisation in the UK post-Brexit

Sime, D., Tyrrell, N., Käkelä, E. and Moskal, M. (2022) Performing whiteness: Central and Eastern European young people’s experiences of xenophobia and racialisation in the UK post-Brexit. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(19), pp. 4527-4546. (doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2022.2085678)

Abstract

The state-induced anti-immigration environment and the normalisation of xenophobia in political and media discourses have led to the increased othering of European migrants in the UK through new forms of social stratification, especially since the Brexit Referendum of 2016. For young people who migrated to the UK as children from Central and Eastern Europe, Brexit has represented a major rupture in the process of their identity formation, adding new insecurities in the context of increasingly uncertain rights. Based on a survey with 1,120 young people aged 12–18 who identified as Central or Eastern European migrants, followed by focus groups and case studies, we report on young migrants’ everyday experiences of xenophobia and racialisation. We explore the coping and resistance strategies young people used to integrate themselves in these racialized hierarchies. Drawing on insights from emergent theories of racialisation and whiteness, we add new evidence on the direct consequences of these experiences of marginalisation on young people’s sense of belonging and their own attitudes towards other ethnic groups.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The research for this work was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, grant number ES/M011038/1, Project title: Here to Stay? Identity, belonging and citizenship among Eastern European settled migrant children in the UK (a decade after EU enlargement).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Moskal, Professor Marta
• Authors: Sime, D., Tyrrell, N., Käkelä, E., and Moskal, M.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education > Culture, Literacies, Inclusion & Pedagogy
• Journal Name: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• ISSN: 1369-183X
• ISSN (Online): 1469-9451
• Published Online: 17 June 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 48(19): 4527-4546
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License
• Data DOI: 10.5255/UKDA-SN-854232