Research paper about Brexit. Social Sciences. Research Paper

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Brexit
Introduction
To understand what Brexit means, it is crucial to define explain what the EU is and how Britain became a member of the EU in the first place. The EU was formed after the Second World War as a political and economic union of the countries in Europe. Well, the union’s functions have since evolved, and today the union allows free flow of people and goods across all its member countries. The elimination of border controls between the member countries was one of the achievements of the EU, and through this directive, Europe became widely connected.
Britain was not among the first members to join the EU formerly the European Communities. However, in 1963, Britain submitted its first request to join the European Communities. But its application was denied mainly because of the opposition of Charles de Gaulle a former French President. However, in 1969, Britain made its third request to join the European Communities, and in 1973, Britain was officially considered a member of EC as it was formerly known. Well, since becoming a member, Britain has had a rocky relationship with the EU, and it took two years after joining the EC for the country to have its first national referendum to decide whether Britain was to remain a member of EC or not. The UK sought to join the EU mainly because of the economic gains. It was not willing to be a part of any political integration scheme, and neither was it willing to transfer any of its sovereign power to the EU. The latter part of the above statement is evidenced by the UK’s refusal of the Euro Zone and Schengen Area ideas. The EU, on the other hand, sought for a committed partner but it did not find one in Britain. Additionally, Mackenzie (2018) notes that Britain’s innate sense of superiority over its European neighbors might also have led to the rocky relationship between the UK and the EU. The friction between the UK and the EU continued to be shaky, and in 2016, this friction boiled over, and Britain had a referendum and voted the second time to decide on its membership to the EU. Unlike in 1975, this time around, those who voted to leave won with a majority percentage of 51.9%. With more than 30 million people turning out to vote, the country made the bold decision to leave the EU. But why did this happen, what kind of deal is Britain poised to get from the EU, and what are some of the short-term and long-term consequences of Brexit? Well, this article delves deeper into the issue and seeks to capture and explain why Brexit happened as well as the consequences or implications of Brexit to both the UK and the EU.
Why Britain voted to leave the EU
There are numerous speculations which seek to explain why Britain is leaving the EU (it is technically still a member). However, many of them are simply speculations with no truth in them. But looking at Britain’s history, several things can be said to have propagated the call or vote to leave the EU.
First of all, Britain has been a kingdom for a long time now and has been in control of several kingdoms especially during the colonialism era. Looking back, it is only a few decades when Britain was considered the superpower and the leader of civilization. Well, all this, Britain achieved without the help of any other nation and without being a member of any union. Having had such an experience, it is not strange that such a country could decide to vote to leave the EU not once but twice. As per the voting statistics, 70% of the voters who are over 65 voted to leave the EU (BBC, 2018). Well, this is quite revealing and will help in further elucidation of the point that Britain left the EU mainly because it felt that its sovereignty was under threat. Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon is a man who appears to have identified a reason for Brexit that echoes what is stated above. On what Grob-Fitzgibbon elucidation of Brexit, O’Reilly notes that he believes that the “unreconciled longings for the loss of Empire and post-imperial nostalgia are where we find the roots of Euroscepticism in Britain” (2016). O’Reilly continues to state that a whopping 49% of those who voted to leave the EU cited sovereignty as their chief reason. People felt that “the principle that decisions about the UK should be taken in the UK” made more sense and thus gave the UK a better chance of rebuilding. However, with the presence of the EU, it feels like Britain has a big brother who is watching over its every move and decides who has access to Britain and who does not. The threat to Britain’s sovereignty appears to be a valid reason for the kingdom’s decision to leave the EU.
Secondly, research evidence appears to indicate that Britain has flourished economically as a member of EU than as a loner. However, in spite of this fact, the Britons decided to vote leave. Well, the second issue from the list of many speculations is immigration. While the EU is not entirely to blame for this, and it would amount to mere speculation if one were to say that the immigration issue would have been different had Britain not been a member of the EU. Immigration di contribute to the vote to leave the EU. In 2004, Britain made the decision to open its labor market to other countries in the EU (Consterdine, 2016). There was nothing wrong with this, and the projections were quite reasonable and hence at the time, this decision never attracted uproar. However, after the first year, the Blair government openly admitted that they had made a mistake. Many like Mary (2017) appear to trace Brexit back to Blair and his decision to open the borders for the migrants from Eastern Europe. O’Reilly (2016) notes that “leavers saw more threats than opportunities to their standard of living from the way the economy and society are changing.” He continues to indicate that these people felt that the future of their children was at risk with increased immigration as opportunities were bound to reduce. Aside from this debacle, it is also crucial to consider how the EU has been handling the issue of immigration in Europe and how Europeans, in general, have been reacting. O’Reilly (2016) notes that “there has been a growing level of dissatisfaction with the handling of the economic and the migrant crisis, and limited support for a closer union.” The EU has been careless with its handling of the migrant crisis, and the citizens of Europe have taken note of this. People have become insecure, and their faith in the EU has been waning.
The third issue here is the notion that Britain sought to seize the control of its borders. As indicated earlier, the EU made it possible for citizens of member countries to move freely across the continent. One could get a job anywhere in the continent as long as they were a citizen of a member country. This means that rich or large job markets like Britain’s are currently quite diverse with immigrants’ percentage rising steadily. During the Brexit campaign period, there were concerns that immigrants were taking over the job market. The Office for National Statistic reported that “the employment rate (the proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 who were in work) was 81.9% for EU nationals, higher than that for UK nationals (75.6%) and higher than that for non-EU nationals (63.0%).” These numbers could incite and even drive fear into domestic citizens who cannot be faulted to think that their jobs are indeed at risk...