Young EU Migrants in London in the Transition to Brexit

Aija Lulle is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at Loughborough University. Her research interests cluster around exploring migrants’ experiences and wellbeing over the life course. She has published widely in geography and interdisciplinary migration journals.Laura Moroşanu is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Sussex. She is interested in migrants’ social lives, identities and work trajectories, and has published her research in leading journals, including Ethnic and Racial Studies, Sociology and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.Russell King is Professor of Geography at the University of Sussex, where he headed the university’s partnership in the EU YMOBILITY project. He has wide-ranging interests in the field of migration. His latest book is the co-edited Handbook of Return Migration (2022).

"Young EU Migrants in London in the Transition to Brexit analyses how moving across borders and moving through life are inter-related. Drawing on rich empirical material, theoretically informed and engagingly written, the book is an invaluable resource to experts and newcomers to Migration Studies and Youth Studies. It is a fantastic introduction to both fields, uncovering connections, contradictions and complexities in everyday experiences, relationships and trajectories, and relating these in an accessible and informed way to social theory. Its methodology and argumentation are a model of excellent social-scientific research." Bridget Anderson, University of Bristol, UK"In their timely study on how geographic mobility and youth transition to adulthood shape each other, Aija Lulle, Laura Moroşanu and Russell King have succeeded in setting new standards. In a conceptually sophisticated, methodologically rigorous and empirically rich case study of mobile young adults in London, they convincingly compare the pre- and post-Brexit worlds of European mobilities. This superb account is bound to become an essential guide for debating how issues around mobility relate to work, study, changing identities, transnationality and future expectations of migrants."Thomas Faist, Bielefeld University, Germany"London was an unparalleled success story of the EU’s free movement regime, attracting subsequent waves of young migrants from all over the continent in search of social mobility and a multicultural atmosphere. Brexit wrought havoc on these avatars of a borderless Europe. Their unsettled voices are vividly heard in the pages of this book, which remarkably expose how a democratic choice snowballed into a climate of othering and racialisation."Ettore Recchi, Sciences Po Paris and Migration Policy Centre, EUI, Florence, Italy"Understanding better the social repercussions of Brexit for young mobile Europeans remains a timely and important research task as the consequences of the UK’s departure from the EU are still unfolding. This book sheds analytical and empirical light on the realities of mobility in the EU, acknowledging that it brings together both opportunities and challenges, particularly for youth."Anna Triandafyllidou, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada

• 1. EU Youth Mobility: Questions, Methods, Concepts and Theories2. Destination London: Migration History and Motivations3. Employment Experiences: Building Careers and Independent Lives Abroad?4. Housing, Satisfaction, Social Inclusion and Health: A Human Wellbeing Approach5. Identity Options: Ethnic, Cosmopolitan or European?6. Travel and Remittances: A Transnational Life?7. Brexit: A Political Moment and a Process of Rupture8. Conclusions: Still 'Eurocity London'?