Public opinion as an indicator of the political crisis in the UK: migration track

The subject of this study is the change in migration regulation and public discourse on immigration in the UK after leaving the European Union. On the basis of official statistical data and survey data conducted by the largest companies in the field of marketing research and national centers for sociological research, the degree of influence of Brexit on the transformation of migration processes in the UK and the change in British public opinion on the issue of the country's immigration policy is analyzed. Brexit changed the structure of migration in the UK, the growth of net migration was provided by the outflow of European citizens and immigration from non-EU countries. The public perception of migration processes is opportunistic and depends on the political preferences of citizens and the degree of speculation on the migration topic in the media. The theoretical basis of the research is neofunctionalism as a theory of disintegration applicable to European integration. The methodological basis of the study is a systematic approach and predictive methods using inductive algorithms, which were expressed in the construction of a scenario of post-integration interaction between London and Brussels in the field of migration regulation. Content analysis was used to study regulatory documents. It is concluded that any British government is faced with the usual compromise between the needs of the economy and migration policy, which is non-systemic and adapts to public opinion. It has been revealed that the migration issue is being resolved not from a legal, but from a political point of view, acting as an instrument of the electoral struggle between Conservatives and Labour. The dynamics of public opinion regarding the economic and cultural consequences of immigration is positive, but a drastic reduction in public discontent is possible only when solving systemic problems of migration policy. The author concludes that a way out of the political crisis is possible, including through a return to free movement with the EU, which in the short term is a taboo topic for the Labour government.

the EU's democratic deficit, post-Brexit, public opinion, net migration, tightening of migration policy, the economic imperative of migration, conservatives, laborites, political crisis, political hypocrisy