The UK at Eurovision - Where is London Bridge?

Ever since the UK reintroduced a national final in 2016, their participation has been perceived as more serious than in the past. As I analyzed in my previous blog post, before 2016 the UK struggled with finding the right way to appeal not only to their own viewers, but to the international audience. The BBC previously sent Engelbert Humperdinck (Adams) and Bonnie Tyler (Aderemi), both artists with assumed large fan bases from their careers in the mid to late 20th century. When this failed to return a right-side-of-the-scoreboard result, the BBC sent a young Molly who, with public hope for success, did do better than the aforementioned acts, but still failed to reach the top half with a cluttered stage full of spiritual imagery from the East. Her successors again failed to do well as their obscure genre of electro-swing and poor message and intonation resulted in an almost last place finish. These days, the BBC has recruited singers from The Voice and X Factor as a way to choose not only capable live singers but also to select performers who have had experience receiving support from a diverse public in a song contest. However, while the musical quality of the UK's Eurovision entries has increased, they continue to lack the amount of nation branding that many other countries that also participate imbed in their acts. Like mentioned above, Molly’s performance focused on East and Southeast Asian philosophy on spirituality while representing the textbook-Western United Kingdom. In this way and many others, including but not limited to inaccurate representation of diversity among the delegation, the UK has shown that it is still struggling on how to present itself at Eurovision without stereotyping, essentializing, and generally misrepresenting the true nature of the British populace that I detailed in my first blog post. In this final entry, I will be analyzing what aspects of the British national identity have been presented at Eurovision, what aspects have not, and how these actions speak on the attitudes the UK has towards not only the contest but towards their own nation branding.

            To begin, the British national identity that I established in my first blog post was one that was formed over hundreds of years where English, Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish culture and social attitudes mixed together and resulted in the creation of a union where each nation foils each other on the political stage and in normal life. Some of the aspects of this national identity were well put by Nasar Meer in his article I referenced in my first blog post where he said, “One influential articulation in governmental policy and discourse, frequently discussed in the press, has sought to renew or reinvigorate British national identity through the promotion of common civic values, as well as English language competencies; a wider knowledge of – and self-identification with – cultural, historical and institutional heritages, in addition to approved kinds of political engagement and activity” (Meer 9). Inherently, these concepts are hard to put into song which makes it difficult for the acts chosen to represent the United Kingdom in Eurovision to do so. Of all the acts analyzed in the previous blog post, they all have been in English. However, this is not seen as much of a representation of linguistic culture as it is a necessity to reach a wider audience in Europe that learns English as a second language (Wolther 170). In addition, the acts presented by the UK have generally had a message of unity. While there has been the occasional love song, the performances in 2013, 2014, and 2016 all shared the message of bringing people together. The ambiguity of the message, however, makes attributing the theme of the songs to the national identity an unstable conclusion.

            Determining what the UK is lacking in nation branding in their Eurovision performances is a little more cut and dry. One example, as discussed in the previous blog post, is diversity. In the songs analyzed in that post, they all struggled with under and over representation of the diversity in the UK. The United Kingdom is 86% white (“Census”) where about 2% of nationals are LGBTQ+ (“Sexual identity”). However, the performances have not reflected these statistics well. They have either been completely Caucasian or have had minority representation at around 50%. The one song that accurately represented race statistics was Bonnie Tyler’s “Believe In Me” with a single black member out of a six member delegation. At the same time, while it is difficult to find the personal information of all members of the delegations each year, none of the main singer(s) have been any known sexuality except heterosexual. While this is statistically representative and therefore accurately representative of the British population as a whole, the lack of LGBTQ+ performers in an event like Eurovision where the audience consists of a majority of this community (Westcott) may speak towards the way the UK sees Eurovision in recent years as more of a song contests instead of a political and/or social platform.

            Speaking in general about how the entries reflect the social attitudes of the United Kingdom, it is surprising how with successful artists like Adele and Ed Sheeran being British, the BBC is not able to court them into performing at Eurovision. Other European countries that see Eurovision as extremely important in showcasing the abilities of a nation that has a stigma of backwardness and/or harsh conservatism by the West often send their most accomplished pop artists, examples in recent years being Sergey Lazarev from Russia and Ira Losco of Malta who both have large fan bases in their respective countries and throughout Europe. Also, as mentioned in the previous blog post and in the beginning of this one, in the past the UK has tried to appeal to an older audience by sending performers who were popular when that audience was younger. However, with the audience and performers in the contest becoming younger and more modern, the UK has begun shifting its targeted audience towards the youth. In this way, however, due to a growing British elderly population (Wescott) the UK is still struggling to represent its people accurately on the international stage.

            With all that in mind, it seems that the United Kingdom has not used the Eurovision stage as a platform (metaphorically) for political statements and in general for nation branding as other nations have done. There may be a myriad of reasons for this, but I have concluded the following: the UK does not actively participate in nation branding at Eurovision because their national identity is well established and well known throughout Europe to the point where there is no need to do so. Tourism to the UK from abroad has consistently been rising and out of the top ten nationalities of tourists, eight of them are European (“Travel trends”). With a total of around 25 million European visits to the United Kingdom in 2015, surpassing the population of several European countries themselves (“European Countries”), it is clear that the UK is often visited by Europeans and therefore much of Europe and in hand the Eurovision audience is well aware of British culture. At the same time, the UK does not participate in nation branding because of its diversity. As I mentioned before, the population of the UK is a white majority. So, with the case of essentialization by Molly in 2014 as an example, it is difficult for the BBC to choose a song and performance that can somehow represent every aspect of all people groups in Britain without appearing to prefer one or marginalize another. In countries where the population is more ethnically uniform and where free speech against a song that may oppress or fetishize a minority group is limited, this is not as much of a hurdle. In the UK, however, it is difficult for the broadcaster to present any sort of national identity without facing opposition by the groups not represented and their supporters.

            Acknowledging that the UK does not use Eurovision in the same way as other countries in Europe, I believe that they take Eurovision to be more of a music competition than a singing Olympics. While it can be argued that even the music has seemed halfhearted and jovial in the past decade, historically and recently the UK has tried to send credible, already successful acts to the contest. Like I analyzed in my previous blog post and earlier in this entry, the lyrics and overall message of many of the recent songs have been stock and/or ambiguous not only to avoid political statements but also to appeal to a larger consumer audience. In this way, it appears that the UK continues to see Eurovision as a way to launch the career of an artist, especially now that the upcoming artist is, like last year, a former contestant on a television show meant to discover potential talent (Newman).

            Altogether, the evidence gathered over these three blog posts culminates in my conclusion that the United Kingdom has an internal national identity of collaboration and unity through language and ideals while having an external national identity of tropes like Big Ben and fish and chips that is well known throughout Europe and the world. Therefore, the UK does not feel the need to continue to advertise itself to an international audience already aware and knowledgeable of whatever may be presented to them. At the same time, internally the UK wants to avoid misrepresentation and offending a very diverse British populace which then reduces incentive to take part in nation branding that may not be accurate. Because of this, the BBC and the selected acts over the years have been able to focus more on the music and a far-reaching message that does not necessarily represent the internationally perceived British national identity but does represent the social and cultural values of the British people.

Works Cited

Adams, William Lee. “Engelbert Humperdinck: The U.K. chooses elderly legend for Eurovision.” Wiwibloggs, 1 Mar 2012, http://wiwibloggs.com/2012/03/01/engelbert-humperdinck-the-u-k-chooses-elderly-legend-for-eurovision/14739/.

Aderemi, Deban. “United Kingdom: Bonnie Tyler to sing ‘Believe in Me’ at Eurovision.” Wiwibloggs, 7 Mar 2013, http://wiwibloggs.com/2013/03/07/united-kingdom-bonnie-tyler-to-sing-believe-in-me-at-eurovision/22960/.

Meer, Nasar et al. “Embodying Nationhood? Conceptions of British national identity, citizenship, and Gender in the ‘Veil Affair’.” Sociological Review, vol. 58, no. 1, Feb 2010, http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.seattleu.edu/ehost/detail/detail?sid=202da6ed-a67f-4024-b4c9-78d90026110b%40sessionmgr4008&vid=0&hid=4214&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=47601730&db=sih.

Newman, Vicki and Lara Martin. “Graham Norton doesn’t seem that optimistic that UK will win Eurovision 2017.” Mirror, 28 Feb 2017, http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/graham-norton-doesnt-seem-optimistic-9932178.

United Kingdom, Office for National Statistics. 2011 Census: Population Estimates for the United Kingdom, 27 March 2011. 27 Mar 2011, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_290685.pdf. 14 Mar 2017.

United Kingdom, Office for National Statistics. Overview of the UK population: February 2016. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/articles/overviewoftheukpopulation/february2016. 14 Mar 2017,

United Kingdom, Office for National Statistics. Sexual identity, UK: 2015. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/sexuality/bulletins/sexualidentityuk/2015. 14 Mar 2017.

United Kingdom, Office for National Statistics. Travel trends: 2015. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/leisureandtourism/articles/traveltrends/2015#overseas-residents-visits-to-the-uk. 14 Mar 2017.

“European Countries by population (2017).” worldometers, http://www.worldometers.info/population/countries-in-europe-by-population/. 14 Mar 2017.

Westcott, Lucy. “Your Guide to The Politics of the Eurovision Song Contest.” The Atlantic, 6 May 2014, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/05/your-guide-to-the-politics-of-the-eurovision-song-contest/361707/.

Wolther, Irving. “More Than Just Music: The Seven Dimensions of the Eurovision Song Contest.” Popular Music, vol. 31, no. 1, Jan 2012, http://search.proquest.com.proxy.seattleu.edu/docview/919021411?accountid=28598&rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo.

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The United Kingdom at Eurovision - Humperdinck to Joe and Jake

The United Kingdom's reign in Eurovision has been a reputable one. Since the contest’s inception, the UK has won the song contest five times. However, the most recent win by Katrina & the Waves was twenty years ago. Since then, the United Kingdom has gone through a period of very interesting acts, such as a rapper in 2006 and dirty flight attendants the next year (“UK Entries”). The United Kingdom has also produced acts that have done well over the last two decades. The performances in 1998 and 2002 landed the UK in the top three, and Jade Ewen’s West End-y song in Moscow gave the United Kingdom solace from the right side of the scoreboard with a fifth place finish (“United Kingdom”). Over the past five years, the UK has had the last of it’s internally selected acts and the rebirth of the national selection which was last held in 2010 before its reintroduction in 2016. It has also begun to take the contest a little more seriously which is evident in the quality of the songs compared to those in the late noughties. In this blog post, I will be analyzing the performances since 2012 with the goal of finding what ways each performance reveals about the United Kingdom's appreciation or lack thereof for diversity.

In the past, the UK had tried to send established acts, including famous bands like Blue, to no avail. So, the internal selection committee decided it would be strategic to select veteran singer Engelbert Humperdinck to Baku. Banking on the fact that he still had fans throughout Europe, there was hope that he could perform better than the past few appearances (Adams). The song itself opened the night of competition with a single spotlight and acoustic guitar strumming a waltz-like (3/4) beat. The exposition continued with the introduction of two dancers and cloud-like projections. As the chorus made its rounds and reached the peak, the clouds turned red and pyrotechnics fell from above. The performance ended with even more pyrotechnics, this time spinning, as Humperdinck blew a kiss to the camera. The lyrics of the song spoke about how one should give up their own love if that person has found their soulmate in another. The stage performance itself contained many of the classic tropes of a Eurovision performance - dancers, love, and pyrotechnics. The dancers represented the happiness of the couple comprising of another man and the former lover that, in the case of this performance, Humperdinck must give up. The pyrotechnics served to emphasize the musical peaks of the performance, but did not serve much of  a metaphorical purpose. An interesting thing to mark is that in spite of the diversity of the UK, all the performers on stage were white. In that sense, this performance could have been legitimately presented by any other nation in Europe and seemed representative.

The next year in Malmö, the UK was represented by Bonnie Tyler, another veteran of the music industry. Again the BBC was relying on the remnants of her fans throughout Europe as a way to glide through the contest outside the bottom five (Aderemi). The song opened with a trio of guitars, a drummer, and Tyler herself in front of a stage lit in gold. Each time the chorus was sung, the lights grew in intensity. There are no images projected, however, just patterns of gold. The entire audience, wearing LED wristbands, was a sea of gold that at the end of the song converted to a sea of blue. The song had no dancers and no pyrotechnics. It gave off a more country, relaxed feel than in the past entries. The lyrics suggested that when one feels that everything is going downhill and that there is nothing to be done, the singer (Tyler) can be one to believe in and trust for support. The color and growth of the light can suggest the sun which can then suggest hope, which can also be seen in the fact that the song is also relatively upbeat compared to the performance from the previous year. Also, the diversity of the performers has increased as the backing keyboardist is black, but still the majority of performers are white.

When the contest crossed the Øresund to Copenhagen, the UK send a competitor who crossed the generational straight. Molly Smitten-Downes was another internal selection but was seen as the best act the UK had sent since Ewen in 2009. Some even held the hope that Molly could win the contest for the United Kingdom (Adams). The song opened with a gospel sound sung by four backing vocalist. A drummer set the strong beat right from the start, and Molly began the exposition with henna on her hands and similar patterns behind her. The lights started off blue but as the song approached its end, they turned red and pyrotechnics rained down. Finally, the song ended as it began, with the line, “power to the people”. The lyrics describe how everyone is a child of the universe and how together they have the ability to end the suffering of others. The henna patterns, which have a spiritual connection that can often be described as representing a connection between heaven and earth (Preetha) served to represent the unification of all people as children of the universe. Like in 2012, the pyrotechnics and change in light color seem to highlight the climax of the performance alone. Compared to the previous years, this cast was the most diverse as half of the backing vocalists were black and the drummer was of asian descent, making the total makeup half white and half minority, which is more representative of the British population compared to previous acts. In this way, the performance further emphasizes that everyone is a child of the universe, no matter where from.

Out of all the recent performances by the UK, their envoy in Vienna was seen as the most joke-like performance since the stewards and stewardesses in 2007. Electro Velvet, the final internally selected act, went for a 1920s jazz motif including scatting and a big band sound. The performance began with a strong beat and the two performers walking down a set of mirrored stairs in front of a colorful backdrop. On the edge of the stage, two pairs of dancers aggressively danced in a mixture of modern dance and the Charleston. After the first chorus, the stage went dark as the costumes lit up in LED strips. Then, the male singer began to scat, continuing the early century feel. A flash of pyrotechnics followed as the professional dancers made backing vocalists missed various notes. Finally, the background projection became heart shaped and another flash of sparks finished off the performance. The lyrics told the story of two people warning each other to take care of themselves and avoid the influences of other flirtatious folks, then reassuring one another that they will be faithful. The entire stage performance served to emulate the flapper feel while again the pyrotechnics and additionally the LED costumes appeared as ways to highlight certain musical interludes outside the main chorus. The lyrics themselves are slightly misogynistic (Adams), but perhaps this was another way to emulate the 1920s. Both female dancers were black and the remaining performers, including the vocalists, were white. Therefore, the diversity was a little less so this year compared to the last, but the inclusion of minorities continues to better represent the actual diversity of the British population that was not as evident in the performances in Baku and Malmö.

In 2016, the contest went to Stockholm and the UK selected its competitor from a national selection for the first time in over half a decade. Joe and Jake, both former The Voice UK contestants, came together and won Eurovision You Decide with the song “You’re Not Alone”. Its more modern feel and young performers gave the UK hope that they could once again perform well in Eurovision. The song began with Joe singing the exposition and Jake playing the guitar, then Jake finished the intro as they both harmonize and begin the chorus. This same pattern continues, but each time the chorus came around pictures of people are displayed on the stage behind them and the pair of drummers. The next chorus had pictures appear on the floor as well, which then lead into a suspenseful pre-chorus that culminated in a pyrotechnic flash and live projection of the audience on the stage behind the performers. The lyrics of this song were about how the one listening to the song can feel safe and comforted knowing that they are not alone and that the singer(s) are there for them. The pictures projected during the performance were submitted by fans prior to the contest (Westbrook) to further emphasize the message that everyone is in this together. There is not much going on onstage to analyze, but when it came to diversity of performers, it is lacking as they are all white. However, this was atoned for since the pictures displayed all over the stage include people of all colors and creeds.

The past five years have been a mixed bag of slow ballads and upbeat love songs with varying levels of diversity. Many have been about love, but more recently the theme has been unity. Even though, the acts only occasionally represent the actual diversity of the country. The United Kingdom has a white majority (“Census”), but if one looks as the composition of a Eurovision act as a statistical sample of the country’s population, many of the acts of the past five years have failed to be representative. In this way, it is clear that in the music industry of the UK and the UK in general, minorities still struggle to be in the position to take lead roles or even be represented properly in the country’s Eurovision delegation.

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References

Adams, William Lee. “Engelbert Humperdinck: The U.K. chooses elderly legend for Eurovision.” Wiwibloggs, 1 March, 2012, http://wiwibloggs.com/2012/03/01/engelbert-humperdinck-the-u-k-chooses-elderly-legend-for-eurovision/14739/.

Adams, William Lee. “Molly wins Amaury Vassili Award for biggest disappointment.” Wiwibloggs, 5 July 2014, http://wiwibloggs.com/2014/07/05/molly-amaury-vassili-award-disappointment/54235/.

Adams, William Lee. “Wiwi Jury: The United Kingdom’s Electro Velvet with ‘Still in Love with You’.” Wiwibloggs, 2 May 2015, http://wiwibloggs.com/2015/05/02/wiwi-jury-reviews-united-kingdoms-electro-velvet/89065/.

Aderemi, Deban. “United Kingdom: Bonnie Tyler to sing ‘Believe in Me’ at Eurovision.” Wiwibloggs, 7 March 2013, http://wiwibloggs.com/2013/03/07/united-kingdom-bonnie-tyler-to-sing-believe-in-me-at-eurovision/22960/.

Greenwood, Carl. “Eurovision 2015 flop for Electro Velvet who become United Kingdom’s worst-performing act for 12 years.” Mirror, 24 May 2015, http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/eurovision-2015-flop-electro-velvet-5751439.

Preetha, Pushra. “Indian Henna Designs - Unfold Deeper Meaning & Significances.” Fashion Lady, 30 September 2014, http://www.fashionlady.in/indian-henna-designs-unfold-deeper-meanings-significances/13903.

Salmon, Josh. “United Kingdom: Joe and Jake release video for ‘You’re Not Alone’.” Wiwibloggs, 14 March 2016, http://wiwibloggs.com/2016/03/14/united-kingdom-joe-jake-youre-not-alone-official-video/132639/

“UK Entries.” BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2p23Z0lyVSX0VHxqNj9kBjH/uk-entries. 6 February 2017

“United Kingdom.” Eurovision, http://www.eurovision.tv/page/history/by-country/country?country=6. 6 February 2017.

United Kingdom, Office for National Statistics. 2011 Census: Population Estimates for the United Kingdom, 27 March 2011. 27 March 2011, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_290685.pdf

Westbrook, Caroline. “Eurovision Song Contest 2016: UK act Joe and Jake want to use your selfies in their performance....” Metro, 16 April 2016, http://metro.co.uk/2016/04/16/eurovision-song-contest-2016-uk-act-joe-and-jake-want-to-use-your-selfies-in-their-performance-5820915/.

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The British National Identity - an enigma

In recent months, the idea of Britishness has become more prominent as a fresh wave of nationalism fueled by Brexit and its supporters has risen in the United Kingdom. The rise of nationalism in England has also incited nationalism in the other nations of the United Kingdom--Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland--with a prime example being the proposal of a second vote for Scottish Independence after the vote to Leave (O’Toole). In Dr. Christina Julios’ book about the impact of language on the formation of what may be considered the British national identity, she quotes Professor Sir Bernard Crick who stated: “...there is no overall British culture, only a sharing of cultures. Britishness is a strong concept, but narrower than many suppose. Do we not speak of and recognize at once English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh novels, plays and poems? And whatever FIFA may think, we see nothing odd in fielding four national football teams” (Julios 3-4). So, in this sense I find that a single national identity of the UK does not formally exist. Rather, the abstract collection of the identities of those living in the four nations of the United Kingdom can be perceived as the de facto national identity.

As Crick explained previously, the British national identity does not necessarily exist as a whole as it may in other nations in Europe. Rather, what others perceive as the British national identity is the collection of the identities of all the nations in the UK and how each of them either shares a part of their identity with another or relies on the existence of a contrasting identity in another nation to form their own. The formation of the English national identity, for example, stems from being the first organized nation on the British isles, allowing them to develop their culture as a dominant force in the area both politically and militarily from the get-go (Smith 439). Scots on the other hand often identify themselves with their place of birth or their accent (Kiely 35-36) since, unlike physical differences between people groups in other nations outside of the United Kingdom, the Scots and the English do not appear to be different until you hear one or the other speak.

For the Welsh, over half the population self-identifies as either solely Welsh or Welsh and British (University of Manchester). Among other things, the Welsh language serves as the foremost definer of Welsh national identity. Since only 19% of the Welsh population speak the language, its presence on street signs and its use in government and business has been reformed as to further encourage the use of Welsh in order to maintain their national identity (Shipton). In a study by the Northern Irish Assembly, Protestants in Northern Ireland identified primarily as British (65%) while Catholics identified the most with Ireland (61%), while those identifying with Northern Ireland among both religious groups sit at more or less the same level (25-29%). The majority religious group in Northern Ireland is Protestantism, so in combination with the previous figure the majority identity of the Northern Irish is with the United Kingdom rather than with Northern Ireland itself or the Irish Republic.

Since all four nations are in a collective (politically and culturally), the British national identity forms from the sharing and contrasting of different aspects of each of the four national identities. This sharing includes behaviors and cultural norms that are common throughout the United Kingdom. These behaviors are described in Nasar Meer’s article on the concept of British national identity which reads: “One influential articulation in governmental policy and discourse, frequently discussed in the press, has sought to renew or reinvigorate British national identity through the promotion of common civic values, as well as English language competencies; a wider knowledge of – and self-identification with – cultural, historical and institutional heritages, in addition to approved kinds of political engagement and activity” (Meer 9). The shared value of political engagement can be seen even more today than in the past due to the current situation in the United Kingdom. Due to the fact that the majority of the British population is white at 86 percent (“Census”), all four nations continue to participate in one common behavior in that they other or do not other immigrants and PoC in the United Kingdom in order to further form what they perceive as the British national identity. For example, the majority of those who voted Stay in the Brexit vote tended to be in large cities with large immigrant populations while those who voted Leave tended to be in the suburban and rural areas where the population is lacking a significant immigrant population. Both sides had and continue to have their own perceived view of the attitude towards immigrants and minorities within the British national identity that justified their decision in the Brexit vote (Taylor).

The issue of assimilation stems from this same issue of othering immigrants and those born in the UK but not to traditional British heritage. Some of those who voted Leave would rather the communities of immigrants remain segregated in their own neighborhoods, free to practice their cultures internally without affecting the British national identity. However, some of those who voted Stay were looking for complete integration of minorities into the British populace and their cultures into the British national identity, ultimately resulting in the removal of multiculturalism all together. Mike Gonzalez quoted progressive politician Trevor Phillips who stated: “Separate communities are actually undermining one of the most cherished of left-wing values - social solidarity” (Gonzalez). Therefore, the British national identity includes several cultural and linguistic similarities among the nations of the UK, but it also includes social attitudes which are used to support several opposing views on how the British national identity should continue to form in the future.

In the end, the British national identity continues to be absent compared to the identity of the French or the Germans. Rather, the UK has created over hundreds of years an identity that consists of a commingling of Scottish, English, Welsh, and Northern Irish national identities and cultures that sometimes clash but often overlap. The unity of these nations in the political realm also contributes to the national identity as people all over the United Kingdom are involved in a single political process that reveals the similarities and/or differences in social and cultural attitudes within the country.

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References

Gonzalez, Mike. “There Is a Better Way to Help Immigrants Assimilate.” Time, 17 January 2017, http://time.com/4626002/multiculturalism-assimilation-immigrants/.

Julios, Christina, Dr. Studies in Migration and Diaspora: Contemporary British Identity: English Language, Migrants and Public Discourse. Ashgate, 2012. ProQuest ebrary.

Kiely, Richard et al. “The markers and rules of Scottish national identity.” Sociological Review, vol. 49, no. 1, February 2001, http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.seattleu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=7741c62f-8ef3-42f0-9b62-4acbd226b380%40sessionmgr4008&vid=1&hid=4107

Meer, Nasar et al. “Embodying Nationhood? Conceptions of British national identity, citizenship, and Gender in the ‘Veil Affair’.” Sociological Review, vol. 58, no. 1, February 2010, http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.seattleu.edu/ehost/detail/detail?sid=202da6ed-a67f-4024-b4c9-78d90026110b%40sessionmgr4008&vid=0&hid=4214&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=47601730&db=sih.

Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Assembly. Understanding the ‘Northern Irish’ Identity. 2015, http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/globalassets/documents/raise/knowledge_exchange/briefing_papers/series4/northern_ireland_identity_garry_mcnicholl_policy_document.pdf.

O’Toole, Fintan. “Brexit is being driven by English nationalism. And it will end in self-rule.” The Guardian, 18 June 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/18/england-eu-referendum-brexit.

Shipton, Martin. “Croeso i Gymru! Welsh language signs to have greater prominence than English across Wales.” Wales Online, 2 June 2014, http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-language-signs-greater-prominence-7206243.

Smith, Anthony D. “‘Set in the silver sea’: English national identity and European integration.” Nations & Nationalism, vol. 12, no. 3, July 2006, http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.seattleu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=39da9c5a-640d-46dc-97cf-9870a4b998cd%40sessionmgr103&vid=1&hid=128.

Taylor, Adam. “The uncomfortable question: Was the Brexit vote based on racism?.” The Washington Post, 25 June 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/06/25/the-uncomfortable-question-was-the-brexit-vote-based-on-racism/?utm_term=.1b0a05bb311b.

United Kingdom, Office for National Statistics. 2011 Census: Population Estimates for the United Kingdom, 27 March 2011. 27 March 2011, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_290685.pdf

University of Manchester. “Who identifies as Welsh?.” Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity, November 2014, http://www.ethnicity.ac.uk/medialibrary/briefings/dynamicsofdiversity/code-census-briefing-national-identity-wales.pdf.

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