This article focuses on the emotionality of belonging among European Union (EU) citizens in the context of the United Kingdom’s (UK) 2016 referendum and its result in favour of the UK leaving the EU, commonly referred to as Brexit. Drawing from testimonies of EU27 citizens in the UK (mainly mid- to long-term residents) published in a book and on blog and Twitter accounts by the not-for-profit and non-political initiative, the ‘In Limbo Project’, it explores a range of emotions which characterise the affective impact of Brexit and how they underpin two key processes disrupting the sense of belonging of EU citizens: the acquisition of ‘migrantness’ and the non-recognition of the contributions and efforts made to belong. The resulting narratives are characterised by senses of ‘unbelonging’, where processes of social bonding and membership are disrupted and ‘undone’. These processes are characterised by a lack of intersubjective recognition in the private, legal and communal spheres, with ambivalent impacts on EU citizens’ longer-term plans to stay or to leave and wider implications for community relations in a post-Brexit society.

The last decade has witnessed the development of a growing phenomenon, the expulsion of European Union (EU) citizens from a host Member State. While the EU encourages its citizens to use their fun-damental right of freedom of movement, citizens moving to other Member States continue to encounter legal obstacles, in some cases leading to expulsion. Recently, there has even been strong political pressure in some Member States to reconsider the benefits of the principle of free movement, which has been built progressively since the foundation of the European Community. This restrictive ap-proach has arisen against the background of the global economic crisis, which occurred just after the enlargement of the EU to economically poorer countries of Central and Eastern Europe, leading to more nationalistic and protectionist measures, which have legal consequences for EU citizens on the move. This article analyses the legal grounds for expulsion under EU law and the safeguards that pro-tect EU citizens residing in host Member States. Examples of expulsions from Member States in recent years are noted, and possible ways of overcoming current issues are proposed.

In contrast to the apparently stringent EU legal regime, the deportation of EU nationals is a law enforcement device widely normalised in many European countries. Concerning deportation prac-tices, the allegedly critical divide between EU citizens and third-country nationals does not seem to make much sense in practice for some – Eastern European – national groups. Initially, this paper explores the scope and scale of this increasingly salient component of the EU deportation system, by drawing on data supplied by national databases. Additionally, it examines why and how the depor-tation of EU nationals has gained traction across the European borderscape, a phenomenon that has much to do with rampant xeno-racist attitudes, widespread concerns over so-called ‘criminal aliens’ and, last but not at all least, the street-level management of poor populations and low-profile public order issues. Finally, this paper scrutinises the strength of institutional inertias in the management of enduringly subordinated – and racialised – Eastern European populations.