Abstract
The purpose of Brexit was to enable the UK to “take back control” of its borders. However, precisely how this would work in practice was left ill-defined. Now that Brexit is done, we must understand how the UK government is actually taking back control of its borders.Where the rhetoric of taking back control of borders most acutely meets the reality is in Northern Ireland. Commitments made between the UK and EU to maintain an open border on the island of Ireland and to protect the rights of EU nationals already living in the UK have become inextricably linked, turning the whole of Northern Ireland into one big border, with potentially profound consequences for EEA+ nationals targeted by the post-Brexit border. As such, this thesis addresses two interrelated questions:
How does the UK intend to take back control of the Irish border, at the policy level, as it pertains to EEA+ nationals?
How is this rebordering being experienced by EEA+ nationals?
Through a dialogue between critical border and ontological security studies I argue that these questions can most effectively be answered by centring the role that contingency plays in contemporary bordering practices and introduce the concept of the Damoclesian border to demonstrate it is not possible to know when, where or with what outcome the next border encounter may occur.
I illustrate this framework by analysing the EU Settlement Scheme and interviews with EEA+ nationals, employers, healthcare workers, and migrants’ rights organisations in Northern Ireland to demonstrate how the contingencies that inform the post-Brexit border in Northern Ireland traverse Government policy, Home Office Resolution Centres, and the Northern Ireland Assembly, intertwining to produce an indeterminate border which has the potential to leave the EEA+ nationals living under it in a state of enduring ontological anxiety.
Thesis is under embargo until 31 July 2026.
| Date of Award | Jul 2025 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Sponsors | UK ESRC NINE Doctoral Training Partnership |
| Supervisor | Katy Hayward (Supervisor) & Debbie Lisle (Supervisor) |
Keywords
- Ontological security
- critical border studies
- migration
- citizenship
- Brexit
- Northern Ireland
- Irish border