Bonds of Transnationalism and Freedom of Mobility: Intra-European Onward Migrants Before and After Brexit

Abstract

While transnationalism and mobility are sometimes used as synonyms, the two concepts have different focuses: on attachments within different countries in transnationalism and on multiple and open-ended moves in the mobility approach. In this chapter, we explore how the two concepts intersect with onward migration in the context of Brexit. The loss of rights linked to EU freedom of movement that is part of the Brexit process increases the orientations towards further migration while, at the same time, limiting the opportunities for further migration. We use in-depth interviews with EU27 citizens in the UK, UK citizens in Belgium and Bangladeshis who have naturalised in Italy before moving to the UK. We show how the completed onward migration to the UK of the Italo-Bangladeshis has weakened transnational activities in relation to Bangladesh, including periodic returns and remittances. We further show how transnational links delimit the mobility orientation of EU citizens ‘by birth’, by focusing on the plans for return migration, rather than onward migration within the EU. Given these results, we reflect on whether transnationalism and mobility theory are simply convergent or if they describe phenomena that might actually be in partial opposition.