Brexit and the Borders and Boundaries of the European Union

The article makes the case for the study of borders and boundaries as
intertwined concepts that bear multiple implications for understanding
the prominence of anti-migration in the public discourse. In this sense
Brexit is approached as the epitome of the rebordering of Europe and
the analysis’ focus falls on the influence on the outcome of the
referendum of the discourses of ‘invading’ Eastern Europeans that
burden the British state. The data used includes the declarations of
British political leaders, found in media articles and in the official
communication of the British Government, over the period of the
campaign for the Brexit referendum, as well as in relation to the main
milestones of Romania’s European integration. The referendum
campaign rhetoric is placed within the wider strategy for obtaining
restrictions and exceptions from the principles of freedom of
movement in order to curb the mobility of the poor and of those
perceived as threateningly different. At the same time, the case of
Brexit reveals how outsiders are strategically portrayed as invaders and
parasites in order to reclaim territorially binding powers.