ImmigrationProf Blog

Friday, June 24, 2016

Brexit Referendum Passes: UK to Exit EU

Photo courtesy of Don Roth

United Kingdom Independence Party ad

Steven Erlanger of the New York Times reports on big news from the United Kingdom. British voters voted to leave the European Union, a historic decision. Not long after the vote tally was completed, Prime Minister David Cameron, who led the campaign to remain in the bloc, announced that he planned to step down by October, saying the country deserved a leader committed to carrying out the will of the people.

The vote was welcomed with a plunge in the financial markets, with the value of the British pound and stock prices in Asia plummeting.

The margin of victory startled even proponents of a British exit. The “Leave” campaign won by 52 percent to 48 percent. More than 17.4 million people voted in the referendum to sever ties with the European Union, and about 16.1 million to remain in the bloc.

Immigration was at the center of the campaign:

"While leaders of the Leave campaign spoke earnestly about sovereignty and the supremacy of Parliament or in honeyed tones about “the bright sunlit uplands” of Britain’s future free of Brussels, it was anxiety about immigration — membership in the European Union means freedom of movement and labor throughout the bloc — that defined and probably swung the campaign.While leaders of the Leave campaign spoke earnestly about sovereignty and the supremacy of Parliament or in honeyed tones about “the bright sunlit uplands” of Britain’s future free of Brussels, it was anxiety about immigration — membership in the European Union means freedom of movement and labor throughout the bloc — that defined and probably swung the campaign.

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The campaign run by one of the loudest proponents of leaving, the U.K. Independence Party, flirted with xenophobia, nativism and what some of its critics considered racism. But the official, more mainstream Leave campaign also invoked immigration as an issue, and its slogan, “Take control,” resonated with voters who feel that the government is failing to regulate the inflow of people from Europe and beyond."