By Clive Barnett, Kuba Jablonowski and Sam Kinsley, University of Exeter

The United Kingdom’s formal departure from the European Union on 31^st January 2021 involves the removal of rights of UK citizens to free movement and residence in EU member states. At the same time, for EU citizens already living in the UK, it involved the removal of their legal rights to residence previously assured by virtue of the UK’s membership of the EU. After Brexit, EU citizens already living in the UK are now subject to domestic immigration laws and border controls. In short, Brexit is an instance in which the fragility of the right to have rights is laid bare, precisely because it is a process in which the contingency of people’s status as bearers of rights is exposed to view.

The European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) is the policy framework and administrative procedure designed to transfer…