Uncertainties Generated during the Brexit Process among Highly Qualified Spanish Workers

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the influence of Brexit on the decision to settle or return of these workers. To this end, we conducted a qualitative research through 38 in-depth interviews with Spanish migrants living in the UK some months before the actual exit from the EU. After analysing the interviews we observed that, despite the permanent idea of return and despite the three analysed variables that “anchor” these people to remain in the UK, the post-Brexit process has exerted a catalysing effect, “disanchoring” and breaking down the identification process with the local population. This study describes that workers’ decisions to migrate and settle are not only conditioned by personal aspects but instead new social, economic and political events in the host country play an important part in this process.