On the tube. Flickr/ Adrian Brady. Some rights reserved.The recent vote in the House of Commons not to guarantee the rights of EU citizens resident in the UK refreshed concerns among many European citizens who had, perhaps not felt compelled to worry much about their position in UK society before last year’s BREXIT referendum. Yet in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, we have seen xenophobic verbal and physical attacks against those thought to be European citizens, as well as Black and Ethnic Minority British citizens.
This is of course deeply worrying, as any rise in xenophobia and racism undermines democratic forms of sociality. One aspect which has perhaps not caught the public imagination arises from one of the calls of the pro-Brexit campaigners. They have emphasised that in demanding curbs on European migration, they are ‘calling for an end to discrimination in the treatment of people wanting to come here’ (“Fair and Controlled”, 2017). They argue that by controlling EU citizens’ migration to the UK, they are ending discrimination in favour of EU citizens, giving more opportunities to enter the country for non-EU migrants.
Underlying this argument is the assumption that EU citizens are white and ethnically European. This reproduces racialized ideas of what it means to be European, in particular ignoring the ways in which European identity is deeply enmeshed in colonial projects. Such a view problematically equates Europeanness with whiteness. This ignores the presence of people of colour in Europe, whether it be centuries-old Black European communities or those who migrated more recently, often as parts of postcolonial or labour migrations.
