Brexit in the real lives of Britons living in the EU27: Bel on racism in the Netherlands and the absence of migrant solidarity in narratives about citizens’ rights

Brexit Brits Abroad

This episode sees Michaela and Chantelle return to understanding the racialised exclusions at the heart of Britishness and other European national identities. They talk with Bel Parnell-Berry (https://project-parnell.com) who lives in the Netherlands. Drawing on the work she does as the programme manager for the European Race and Imagery Foundation (https://erifonline.org), Sinterklass and other practices of blackface across Europe, she talks about the exclusion of people of colour from imaginings of who counts as European. Turning to Brexit, she highlights how campaign groups for the rights of British citizens living in the EU overlooked how the removal of their rights sat in relation to migrant rights more generally, their focus on legal rights overlooked the racist treatment of People of Colour within these populations before and after Brexit.

To find out more about Bel’s thoughts on the absence of migrant solidarity in the concerns of British citizens living in the EU in a time of Brexit, read her article for Gal-Der magazine (https://gal-dem.com/silence-allyship-lacking-migrant-solidarity-brits-abroad/)