A BIG PART of the discussion around the UK’s Brexit referendum involved the topics  of immigration and free movement.

It might not have been the sole reason people voted for Brexit, but it played a part in the Brexiteer argument for leaving the European Union. Now, years on, the topic of immigration is still a big one in the UK.

Over the past few weeks, The Good Information Project has been focusing on the European Union’s current migration issues. With free movement between the EU and the UK (with the exception of Ireland because of the common travel area) having ended on 31 December 2020, the series looks at what impacts have been felt.

On this week’s podcast, we look at how migration has been affected post-Brexit. From the figures available, it appears that pre-pandemic, a significant percentage of low-skilled factory and construction jobs in the UK were held by EU-born workers, as were factory and machine operator jobs, and jobs in food preparation.

Given the changes post-Brexit, and the need for EU citizens (except Irish citizens) to get visas in order to work, what impact has this had on these industries, and in turn on the availability of goods and services?

Brexiteers are saying goods shortages and lorry driver shortages are not the fault of Brexit – but what’s the real story?

To talk us through it all are this week’s guests, The Good Information Project (TGIP) team members Grainne Ní Aodha and CJ McKinney. We’re also joined by project manager Brian Whelan to give us the latest update on all things TGIP. 

 This episode was put together by presenter Sinéad O’Carroll, and producers Aoife Barry and Nicky Ryan.

This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work is the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.