Study title

This is an interdisciplinary, inter-institutional, multi-method three-year project investigating how Brexit affects the social rights of EU & EEA nationals in the UK. It is funded by an ESRC Governance After Brexit Grant. This data collection brings together the results of an advice-led ethnographic study and a series of stakeholder interviews. The advice-led ethnography data deposited consists of numbered case files; we have only uploaded the files for cases for which we had permission to archive the data. Each case folder contains an excel spreadsheet collating all communications – redacted transcripts of emails and summaries of phone calls and meetings. Each separate communication is in a different cell. Where advice requests were accompanied with documents, these are described in a document summary pdf, highlighting key arguments and quotes. Where advice given was accompanied with documents that we compiled, these have been redacted and included. The stakeholder interviews are grouped into two zip files, each containing interview transcripts as word documents. The data includes 20 parliamentary transcripts with MPs and Lords, and 9 transcripts of interviews with non-governmental organisations. We wanted to ask: how well are EU nationals’ rights protected? Do they face administrative obstacles or discrimination when accessing public services? How are EU rights asserted (or jeopardised) in post-EU law?What does transition mean for EEA nationals in the UK? How will future uncertainty affect their ability to claim existing rights now? And will they face administrative obstacles, or discrimination when accessing public services? This project seeks to tackle these questions, to avoid the problems posed by transition from being neglected as researchers look beyond transition. In theory, legal rights will remain mostly unchanged during transition. In practice, however, the perception and anticipation of change can create uncertainty and confusion, which...