Citizenship, entitlement, and autochthonic political projects of belonging in the age of Brexit

The chapter examines some of the reasons why different sections of British society, particularly in England and in Wales, have voted for Brexit and links it with recent developments with the ways people and governments are being engaged in racialized political projects of belonging. The overall argument is that Brexit should be analysed in the context of the reactions of people and governments to the global and local double crisis of governability and governmentality. The rise of populist politics among British people, including some of its racialized minorities, needs to be seen against the background of the British 2014 & 2016 Immigration Acts which established ‘everyday bordering’ as the primary technology of controlling diversity and discourses on diversity, so undermining convivial pluralist multi-cultural social relations. In these processes, border guarding is added to citizenship duties, and the boundaries of social rights are being shifted from the boundaries of civil society towards the boundaries of political citizenship.