European Union Librarians on the Move? An Exploration of Potential Impacts of Brexit on Workforce Diversity

Abstract

This study investigated whether the academic library sector in the United Kingdom (UK) could be in danger of experiencing a decline in workforce diversity following the Brexit vote. A web survey was distributed to academic libraries and library information science (LIS) departments across the UK. Follow-up e-mail interviews were conducted with twelve individuals. Participants were very worried about effects of Brexit on their right to reside in the UK. Two years after the referendum they still felt a high degree of uncertainty about their future. Most participants wanted to stay in the UK. While about a third considered leaving due to Brexit, 21% were undecided and 14% had made concrete plans to leave. However, the reasons for leaving ultimately lay mostly outside of the place of work or study. The findings suggest that the UK academic library sector could be in danger of experiencing a decline in workforce diversity as a result of Brexit.

Keywords:

• Brexit
• library staff
• library profession
• diversity
• inclusion

Notes

1 A recent political scandal in which migrants who had moved from the Caribbean to the UK were wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, or deported from the UK by the Home Office. Many had been born British subjects and had arrived in the UK before 1973 (Craggs, 2018).