Citizenship in Post-Brexit Europe

On Thursday 12th October, Professor Amelia Hadfield took part in a panel alongside Professor Michael Bruter from the London School of Economics in an event hosted by Baroness Smith of Newnham in the House of Lords within the Palace of Westminster.

Entitled Citizenship in Post-Brexit Europe, the event saw a full capacity room where introductory statements were offered from the panel. Baroness Smith summariased the position of her and similar likeminded colleagues on the view of the Government's handling of the negotiations, whilst Professor Bruter spoke in great detail about data gathered by LSE.

Professor Hadfield took a more global approach, stating that a challenge existed in working in a changing, hybrid world; namely that of balancing cosmopolitan vs. communitarian viewpoints that compared citizenship as value-based, or geopgraphical, as well as privileged vs. marginalised. Positive trends mentioned included EU citizenship, Commonwealth of nations/values, Global Citizens Initiative and the role of UNESCO Global Citizenship Education. Negative trends include the roleback by the USA/President Trump on ethnic/religious citizenships and the collapsing respect in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia for key rights. Hadfield concluded that 'Citizenship is what you make it. It's the individual elements that mark citizenship viable, and their particular combination that makes it sustainable'. 

Questions and statements from the audience largely focused on Brexit, and included concerns about the treatment of EU citizens in the UK, the loss of freedom of movement to British citizens and finally, the complexities of the Irish border.