7 Steps to Help Your ESL Students Understand

Brexit

1. 1

The Background

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, first

promised a referendum on Britain’s membership of
the EU in 2013. Although he himself, and many of his
closest colleagues, are pro-European and would have
preferred simply a renegotiated relationship with the EU,
the ruling Conservative party, of which he was leader,
had been riddled with division and infighting over the
European question for decades. Cameron saw the offer
of an in/out referendum as way to calm the euro-
skeptic wing of his party and remove a painful political
irritant.

2. 2

Britain’s Problems with the EU

Show your students a map of Europe and ask them

to characterize Britain’s geographical position within
it. They might note that Britain appears to be on the
 edge of the continent, separated from the remainder of
the EU by the English Channel and North Sea. The only
other EU members which are islands are Cyprus and
Malta. This is significant, and reflects a long-standing
sense in which the British have stood within Europe
but apart from it in important ways. Britain was the only
combatant nation in Europe not occupied by Nazi
Germany, and even today, this and other historical
strands set Britain apart from her European allies. Your
students should understand that there has been a long
history of euro-skepticism which feeds off perceived
major differences in character and lifestyle, as well as
centuries-old disputes over sovereignty, fishing rights,
ancient battles, royal accession, and other (sometimes
apparently trivial) cultural matters.

3. 3

The Modern British Outlook

Any compendium of TV news interviews with British

voters during the run-up to the 2016 referendum will
provide ample evidence of just how frustrated some
people had become with the EU. It was seen
as monolithic, unresponsive, and above
all bureaucratic. In an echo of the famous complaint,
“What have the Romans ever done for us?” from Monty
Pythons’s Life of Brian, the public wondered just what
meaningful and positive contributions the EU had made
to British life.
The referendum was, in many ways, an adjudication on
the rule of David Cameron as Prime Minister. His
controversial and deeply unpopular cuts to public
services - a policy known as ‘austerity’ - alienated and
infuriated the working class in particular. They believed
that these cuts fomented inequality and denied
opportunities to those living in impoverished areas. It is
no accident, in my view, that some of the most vehement
‘Leave’ votes were cast in areas blighted by industrial
decline, unemployment and poor education.
A central complaint was immigration. Have your
students evaluate the ethnic makeup of Britain, and
research just how many EU nationals live there. In many
ways, Britain is a place of contradictions - I write as
someone who grew up in the UK - and your students
should be aware that, alongside cherished values of
tolerance and openness, there are concerns that Britain
is changing faster than its population would like, and that
migrants have failed to integrate. Many of Britain’s major
cities have seen very visible and wrenching changes in
demographics as migrants from the Commonwealth of
ex-Empire nations, first the Indian sub-continent and
Caribbean, Africa and Asia, and later also from the EU,
fundamentally altered the optics of the British high street.
New languages are spoken and new cultural trends
practiced, all while older ‘British’ traditions are on the
wane.
 Many ‘Leave’ voters have angrily refuted allegations of
racism, though the rhetoric of the Leave campaign
deliberately targeted those who believed Britain already
hosted too many migrants. Investigate this with your
students. What makes a person ‘British’, or
‘American’, or ‘Japanese? Is it their language,
behavior, or attitudes? Or simply the location of their
birth? Can a migrant who gains citizenship claim to be as
much a citizen as someone who is native-born?

Then, turn to immigration. Establish that immigration is

driven largely by economic concerns and the availability
of suitable jobs in the new country. Ask your students
whether they would consider living in a different country
in order to earn a better salary, even if the work was
picking fruit, sorting recycling, peeling vegetables, or any
of the myriad, largely low-paid jobs we now relate almost
exclusively with migrants.

4. 4

The Campaign

The very definition of ‘hard-fought’, the campaign by

both sides to influence voter opinion in the lead-up
to the referendum dominated the media, as well as
private conversations and even church services. The
‘Leave’ campaign, headed most visibly by the
 Conservative MP (and flamboyantly colorful character)
Boris Johnson, made extensive use of statistics and
appeals to the emotions, assuring British voters that the
UK could flourish once the shackles of EU membership
were released. The ‘Remain’ campaign, lead by the
Prime Minister, David Cameron, listed the benefits of EU
membership, but failed to make a lasting emotional
connection, or to convince voters that the EU could play
a positive role in their lives.
TV interviews are very revealing here, and are also an
excellent way to practice these concepts with your
students. Arrange pairwork or team exercises in which
groups of voters with different views are asked for their
opinion on the EU. Some might be pro-EU - they travel
frequently, enjoy foreign food, wine, music and culture,
embrace federalism and a closer economic and social
union. Others might be anti-EU - they oppose migration,
would prefer that Britain makes its own decisions, and
believe that membership of the EU is an expensive and
unnecessary luxury.

5. 5

The Vote

Here’s the basic breakdown:

o 72.2% of all registered voters participated. This is
close to a record turnout for a British election of any kind.
o 51.89% voted to leave the EU but only 48.11% voted
to remain (0.08% of votes were spoiled or blank)

Remind your students that the United Kingdom of Great

Britain and Northern Island, to give the UK its formal title,
is a union of four partners: England, Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland (sometimes called Ulster). This is a
good time to point out that Ireland is a sovereign,
independent nation, and has been since 1922, when the
British left, save for continued rule in the six counties of
Northern Ireland. Note that, in many of your students’
first languages, England, Great Britain (the UK without
Northern Ireland) and The United Kingdom are all the
same word, so take care.

An analysis of the vote itself is very revealing. By a

surprising majority, England voted to leave the EU, as
did Wales. However, Northern Ireland and Scotland did
not, and this immediately prompted fears of a
constitutional crisis. Scotland had voted to remain part of
the UK as recently as two years prior, rejecting calls for
independence, and this debate was swiftly renewed after
the EU referendum. It is now considered “highly likely”, in
the words of Scottish Nationalist politician Nicola
Sturgeon, that Scotland will be given a second
opportunity to vote on leaving the UK, so that it can
remain part of the EU in the post-Brexit world.
6. 6

The Impact

It was anticipated by pollsters, politicians, media

figures, and virtually everyone in the days before the
referendum that the UK would vote to Remain. As it
became obvious that the British public was voting to
Leave, the political implications were swift. David
Cameron, his vision for remaining within Europe now in
tatters, resigned and was replaced by Theresa May. A
new government department was set up to make Brexit
arrangements, and a two-year clock began on
negotiations with the EU to extricate the UK from
treaties, trade agreements and other trappings of its EU
membership.

Ask your students to visualize the concerns of the

following types of people as Britain prepares to leave the
EU:

o A businessperson who is worried that reduced

access to European markets will hurt their bottom line
o An EU migrant worker who is worried they’ll be sent
home against their will
o A government minister who now has to roll back
decades of integration
o A leave voter who regrets their decision
 o A remain voter who feels trapped in this new and
unwelcome reality

7. 7

Activities

The opportunities for reading, research,

presentations, debates and written work are
numerous. Here are some recommendations:

o Hold a TV roundtable discussion to examine the

vote and its implications.
o Write an op-ed piece, either from the point of view of
a pro-leave journalist who is elated at the result, or a pro-
remain writer who is horrified at what might come next.
o Run the referendum in your classroom. Give the
Leave and Remain teams the chance to make their points,
and then hold a free, anonymous vote.
o Investigate whether federal unions, in the style of the
EU, might work elsewhere around the world, especially
where your students come from. Could they envisage an
‘Asian EU’ for example, or a similar federation in South
America?
o Assign your students an area of the UK and ask
them to figure out why those people voted as they did.
How important were migration, education, poverty and
unemployment in their decisions? What reasons did
people from those areas give for leaving or remaining?
In the coming months, we will learn just
what the future holds for Britain’s
relationship with the EU, but it is clear
that there is now no turning back from
this decision, and that an extraordinary
and unexpected precedent has been
set.
Brexit is complex, controversial and many-faceted, and I hope
that it provides terrific language-practice opportunities for
your students, as well as a clearer understanding of a bold,
speculative and fascinating political decision.