Brexit, Migration and European Integration Process

Migration issue which has been framed as a threat to national sovereignty within the discourse of "getting back the controls of the borders" and which has also been instrumentalized for political purposes by triggering concerns among the public, constitutes one of the most distinctive factors of Brexit. Although United Kingdom (UK) opts out European Union's (EU) migration, asylum and border management policies to a great extent and keeps its sole national sovereignty in governing these areas, migration has been highly politicized by the Eurosceptic parties as part of their populist discourses during the Brexit process. Brexit also signifies a concrete case to be examined concerning the theoretical debates on the future of European integration. Brexit experience demonstrates that while the country's participation to EU's migration policies can be explained through the highly popular current debate of "differentiated integration", it also opens a room for critically reconsidering the future of European integration through the new debate on "differentiated dissolution".