The Vocabulary of Inclusion and Exclusion in the Stories of EU Citizens in Britain after the Brexit Referendum

This essay examines the way in which EU nationals used a specific vocabulary to articulate their feelings of inclusion and exclusion from the UK at the time of the Brexit Referendum in June 2016. A corpus of 52 personal stories told in the first person by EU nationals has been analyzed through Sketch Engine with the aim of identifying the words used by the authors to express their sense of belonging and status in relation to the UK. The findings have shown that the word “home” with different grammatical and textual constructions is the preferred term to indicate differences in the “sense of belonging”, with certain expressions suggesting a weakened bond with the country and possible problems of integration. In addition, there is a prevalence on the part of the authors to define themselves as “EU citizens” rather than as “immigrants” which may be seen as a form of resistance to their changed status within the UK.