The Changing Face of Work in Brexit-Voting Areas

Ten years after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, the country is still adjusting to the results of that decision. A recent investigation by The Guardian has revealed a surprising trend: areas that strongly supported Brexit have seen the fastest growth in the number of foreign workers. This finding challenges the idea that the vote would lead to a significant decrease in migration in these specific communities.

According to data analysis of government employment records, the number of non-UK workers grew most quickly in areas that voted to leave the EU between 2016 and 2024. In places like Wigan, for example, the share of foreign employees in the workforce more than doubled during this period. While large cities that voted to remain in the EU still have the highest total number of foreign workers, the speed of this change in smaller, pro-Brexit towns is notable. In these areas, migration has become a much more visible part of daily working life than it was before the referendum.

Experts argue that the speed of change is often more important to local residents than the total number of people moving into the country. Anand Menon, a professor at King’s College London and director of The UK in a Changing Europe, explained that people react strongly to change in their immediate surroundings. He noted that a small number of new arrivals in a quiet town might be very noticeable to local people, while a much larger number of arrivals in a busy city like London might go almost unnoticed.

However, the rise in foreign workers is only one part of a larger story about economic health in the UK. The Guardian’s analysis also looked at levels of deprivation — a state of having very little money or access to basic services. The data shows that many areas that voted to leave the EU have become relatively more deprived over the last decade. In contrast, many areas that voted to remain in the EU, such as Cambridge and parts of London, have seen improvements in their local economies and living standards.

This gap between different parts of the country is not new. Many of the areas that voted for Brexit were already struggling with economic weakness before the 2016 vote. The new data suggests that these areas have continued to fall behind in several important ways. For instance, residents in high-leave voting areas are now more likely to face health problems, including a higher risk of early death and a greater need for health-related government benefits. These areas have also struggled to improve their housing and local services at the same speed as the rest of the country.

It is important to note that these two trends — the rise in foreign workers and the increase in local deprivation — are not necessarily caused by one another. Researchers have pointed out that immigration has had only a limited effect on the wages or job opportunities for people born in the UK. Instead, the economic struggles in these towns are often linked to long-term issues that existed long before the referendum took place.

Migration patterns across the UK have also been changing for other reasons. After the Brexit vote, migration numbers actually increased, reaching a high point of 944,000 in the year ending March 2023. This was largely driven by people arriving on health and care visas to work in the UK’s medical system. Since then, however, net migration — the difference between the number of people arriving and the number of people leaving — has fallen sharply. As many of these temporary visas expire, the number of foreign workers is expected to continue to drop.

As the UK looks toward the future, the findings highlight a complex reality. The promise of the Brexit vote was, for many, a hope for better local conditions and more control over their communities. Yet, the data shows that the economic divide between different regions of the country remains deep. While some cities continue to thrive, many smaller towns are still waiting for the improvements they hoped for a decade ago. For policymakers, the challenge remains to understand why some areas are falling behind and how to create a more balanced economy that works for everyone, regardless of how they voted in 2016.