From Deprivation to Discrimination: An Analysis of Poverty and Immigration Levels on Brexit and the 2017 General Election

Abstract

Immigration was a salient issue during the Brexit referendum and the 2017 General Election. From previous studies, it has been established that economic insecurity and fear of immigration fuels Euroscepticism. This thesis employs a mixed methods approach to examine how economic deprivation and immigration affected the voting behavior in Brexit and the 2017 General election. This study first explores correlations between immigration and unemployment levels on the Brexit and 2017 General Election vote shares through a regression analysis. A newspaper analysis is then conducted in the parliamentary constituencies with low unemployment and the same levels of immigration, but different Brexit “leave” vote outcomes to see how those newspapers framed the issue of immigration in the months leading up to the Brexit vote. This is followed by a candidate campaign analysis that evaluates whether candidates who ran during the 2017 General Election in constituencies with high levels of immigration and poverty were more likely to raise the issue of immigration. This thesis culminates by finding that economic deprivation is a probable rationale that drove the voting behavior in Brexit and the 2017 General Election.