In 2012, the UK government rolled out a policy commonly referred to as the “hostile environment”, through which as unwelcoming an environment for illegal immigrants would be created as possible.  As explained in Bordering, this prompted many people throughout Britain to become unofficial border agents, as landlords, employers, schools, and hospitals were encouraged or mandated to check the legality of those they housed, employed, treated, or educated.

The imposition of substantial fines for those unable to perform these duties had the consequence of increasing discrimination against all foreigners, even when they had full legal rights to live and work in the UK.  It’s one of the numerous (presumably) unintended consequences of creating such an openly hostile culture towards non-UK citizens.

A recently published paper from Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna) highlights further consequences of this policy, as it highlights how many German academics are actively seeking to leave the UK in the wake of both the hostile environment policy and the Brexit vote that stemmed from it.

The researchers conducted a survey of 124 German scientists across the UK both before and after the Brexit vote in 2016.  At the time of completing the survey, the average age of participants was 45 and they had been living in the UK for between two and 36 years.

Anti-foreigner sentiment

The results reveal that there was clear concern about the rise in anti-foreigner sentiment that had been exacerbated by the Brexit vote, with many academics contemplating life elsewhere as a result.

The researchers believe that these findings further highlight the precarity with which many foreigners are feeling towards life in the UK at the moment, and they urge employers to do more to ease that uncertainty.

“Around three million EU citizens are living and working in the UK, including many scientists and academics,” the researchers explain. “For many industries, international staff are important because of the specialised expertise and skills that these industries need, which are not available from domestic talent alone.

“In the higher education sector specifically, internationality is particularly important because of teaching and research. It is all the more important for organisations support the integration of their international employees in the host country and help them build a social network and feel at home there. Without this support from employers, this trend of expats returning home will only continue, which is of no benefit to anyone.”