Reconstructing European Identity for the British After Brexit
European Identity and Legal Membership Among British Nationals Living in France
Abstract
This article examines how the United Kingdom (UK)’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU) in 2016— so-called ‘Brexit’—has affected the lives, citizenship status and European identity of British nationals who continue to reside in EU member states. Focusing specifically on the experiences of British nationals living in France, this study used qualitative interviews conducted between 2023 and 2025 to explore whether the loss of European citizenship had altered their sense of belonging (to the UK, the EU and their country of residence), and how they had coped with the legal and administrative consequences of Brexit. The interviews revealed that some British nationals applied for French citizenship to ensure for remain in France following the 2016 referendum, identifying themselves as ‘British and French, or European’. Conversely, whilst some British nationals remained in France having obtained a residence permit under the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, others were refused this permit and were not recognised as “unworthed” to remain in France. This study focused specifically on the views of British nationals who had worked for European and international organisations regarding their identity and citizenship. It became clear that the particular circumstances of these international civil servants—who fall outside the scope of the Withdrawal Agreement—have created a situation of vulnerability for them. To address this situation, the study examined the current status of their efforts to reconstruct their citizenship in order to continue living in France. This study revealed that tracing ancestral roots to an EU Member State and applying for naturalisation—regardless of place of residence or the presence of a national identity—is emerging as a strategy for regaining EU citizenship rights.
References
Auer, D., & Tetlow, D. (2023). Brexit, uncertainty, and migration decision. International Migration, 61(4), 88–103. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13079
Benson, M. (2010). The British in rural France. Manchester University Press.
Benson, M. (2020). Brexit and the Classed Politics of Bordering: The British in France and European Belongings. Sociology, 54(3), 501–517. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038519885300
Berrod, F. (2020). The Undemocratic Effects of a Referendum: One of the Many Paradoxes of Brexit. A legal perspective. In B. Wassenberg, & N. Suzuki (Ed.), Origins and Consequences of European Crises: Global views on Brexit (pp. 65–85). Peter Lang.
Blanchard, M. (2025). Bloodline gateways: Italian ancestral citizenship as a resource
to bypass European migration policies. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 51(11), 2734–2750. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2024.2438648
Bouveresse, A. (2020). The Right to Family Reunification after Brexit: The Impossible Status Quo. In B. Wassenberg, & N. Suzuki (Ed.), Origins and Consequences of European Crises: Global views on Brexit (pp.89–103). Peter Lang.
Castellani, O. (2025). ‘It was a gut-wrenching experience, really’: understanding emotional dimensions in French migrants' decision to apply for British citizenship after Brexit. National Identities, 28(3),1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/14608944.2025.2473039
European Communities (1976). European Union. Report by Mr Leo Tindermans to the European Council. Bulletin of the European Communities. Supplement 1/76. https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/86474a24-ccae-462b-8de4-00aacde62c65
European Commission (EC). (2020, October 20). Investor citizenship schemes: European Commission opens infringements against Cyprus and Malta for “selling” EU citizenship. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_1925
European Communities (1976). European Union. Report by Mr Leo Tindermans, Prime Minister of Belgium, to the European Council. Bulletin of the European Communities. Bulletin of the European Communities Supplement 1 /76.
European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS). (2000, June). EU and UK citizens' rights after Brexit: An overview. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_IDA(2020)651975
Favell, A. (2008). Eurostars and Eurocities: Free Movement and Mobility in an Integrating Europe. Wiley-Blackwell.
Harpaz, Y. (2019). Compensatory citizenship: dual nationality as a strategy of global upward mobility. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(6), 897–916. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1440486
Heater, D. (1997). What is citizenship? Polity.
Joppke, Ch. (2018). The instrumental turn of citizenship. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(6), 858–878. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1440484
Kim, J. (2019). ‘Ethnic capital’ and ‘flexible citizenship’ in unfavourable legal contexts: stepwise migration of the Korean Chinese within and beyond northeast Asia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(6), 939–957. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1440489
King, L., Warnes, T., & Williams, A. (2000). Sunset lives: British retirement Migration to the Mediterranean. Berg Publishers.
Leduc, S. (2020, February 3). Après le Brexit, le blues des élus britanniques en France. France 24. (https://www.france24.com/fr/20200203-apr%C3%A8s-le-brexit-le-blues-des-%C3%A9lus-britanniques-en-france)
Lister, M., & Pia, E. (2008). European Citizenship and European identity. In M. Lister, & L. Pia (Ed.), Citizenship in contemporary Europe (pp. 162–189). Edinburgh University Press.
Mateos, P. & Durand, J. (2012). Residence vs. Ancestry in Acquisition of Spanish Citizenship: A ‘Netnography’ Approach. Migraciones Internacionales, 6(23), 9–46.
Moscal, M. (2025). Homing infrastructures: Central and Eastern European families between precarity and cosmopolitan identity in post-Brexit Britain. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2025.2595283
Norton, T. (2024).’Isolated British Europeans’: How EEC Membership Helped the Gibraltarians Secure British Citizenship, 1962-1981. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 52(1), 128–157. https://doi.org/10.1080/03086534.2023.2197427
Sacramento, J. & Castan Pinos. J. (2020). Brexit’s Territorial Externalities. In B. Wassenberg & N. Suzuki (Ed.), Origins and Consequences of European Crises: Global views on Brexit (pp. 195-213). Peter Lang.
Siklodi, N. (2023). (Br)exit citizenship: belonging, rights and participation. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2023.2298330
Suzuki, N. (2011). Participation des Européens aux municipales de 2018: Comparaison avec celles de 2001 du point de vue de la participation politique des immigrés en France. Annales de la Société franco-japonaise de Sciences politiques, 6, 37–52.
Suzuki, N. (2015). Participation politique des citoyens européens: Analyse des résultats des élections municipales de 2014 en France. Annales de la Société franco-japonaise de Sciences politiques, 9, 21–34. https://doi.org/10.82620/asfjsp.9.0_21
Suzuki, N. (2020). Effects of Brexit on British Living in France. In B. Wassenberg, & N. Suzuki (Ed.), Origins and Consequences of European Crises: Global views on Brexit (pp. 121–139). Peter Lang.
Wihtol de Wenden, C. (1999). La citoyenneté européenne. Presses de Sciences Po.
Yanasmayan, Z. (2015). Citizenship on Paper or at Heart? A Closer Look into the Dual Citizenship Debate in Europe. Citizenship Studies, 19(6–7), 785–801. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2015.1053793
Zontini, E., & Genova, E. (2022). Studying the Emotional Costs of Integration at Times of Change: The Case of EU Migrants in Brexit Britain. Sociology, 56(4), 638–654. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385211063355
Copyright (c) 2026 Noriko Suzuki
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
