Topic: . Brexit refers to the UK leaving the EU.

A public vote was held in 2016, when

17.4 million people opted for Brexit.

● Describe the main events of Brexit.

● What are non - economic arguments for and against Brexit? Who has
presented them? What evidence have they given? How have the arguments
been criticized?

● Non-economic arguments:

2 main arguments for/against Brexit: Immigration & Sovereignty.

Who have presented them:

*Leave:

- PM Theresa May (after Referendum) along with Conservative politicians

In short: Prime Minister Theresa May was against Brexit before the EU referendum
but now says there can be no turning back and that "Brexit means Brexit". The reason
she gave for calling a general election was to strengthen her hand in negotiations with
the EU.

- Labour Party (after Referendum)

In short: The Labour Party campaigned against Brexit in the referendum but now says
the result must be honored, and is aiming for a "close new relationship with the EU"
with workers' rights protected.

- UKIP (initial campaigning to leave the EU)

In short: UKIP has long campaigned to leave the EU - and having finished on the
winning side in the referendum, is now styling itself as the "guard dog of Brexit".

*Remain:

- Liberal Democrats

In short: The Liberal Democrats are strongly pro-EU, and have promised to stop what
they call a "disastrous hard Brexit".

- Pro-Europeans (people who support staying in Euro)

Immigration: This issue covers immigration and free movement within

Europe.
- Leave: they wanted Britain to take back full control of its borders and reduce the
number of people coming here to live and/or work.

The emergency brake won't cut EU migration because most EU migrants are young
workers not looking for hand-outs. EU free movement discriminates against highly-
skilled people from the rest of the world. If the UK is in the EU, then it is in the free
market - and that means Britain can't control EU immigration.

- Remain: they argued, the flow of immigrants is good for the UK economy.

Freedom of movement benefits the British economy. There's no more red tape
preventing employers from getting cheap or appropriately skilled labor quickly. This
has made the UK more competitive at home and globally. The UK could not
realistically pull up the drawbridge when its prosperity relies on creating global
wealth-generating networks.

Evidences:

- Leave: Britain cannot control EU immigration.

+ Freedom of movement gives other EU citizens an automatic right to live

here. Under EU law, Britain cannot prevent anyone from another member state
from coming to live in the UK, while Britons benefit from an equivalent right
to live and work anywhere else in the bloc. The result was a huge increase in
immigration into Britain, particularly from eastern and southern Europe.

According to the Office for National Statistics, there were 942,000 eastern
Europeans, Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK, along with 791,000
western Europeans and 2.93m workers from outside the EU in 2016. China
and India are the biggest source of foreign workers in the UK.

The UK is in the free market - Britain can not control EU immigration

- EU law guarantees that citizens of one EU country have the right to travel, live, and
take jobs in other EU countries.

+ "In recent years, hundreds of thousands of Eastern Europeans have come to Britain
to do a job," British journalist and Brexit supporter Douglas Murray told

+” An estimated 202,000 citizens from other EU countries immigrated to the UK in

the year to September 2018, and about 145,000 emigrated abroad.” FullFact, 2019)

+ Around 3.7 million people living in the UK in 2018 were citizens of another EU
country => Immigration not only influenced on native born British but also public
services

- Remain:
 + Immigrants, especially those from the EU, pay more in taxes than they take
out.

+ Leaving will not solve the migration crisis but bring it to Britain’s doorstep
because border controls from the Continent will move from Calais in France to
Dover in UK.

+ Freedom of movement benefits the British economy

+ Immigrants who will bring valuable skills to the country and integrate well
into British culture.

+ Employers got cheap and high-level labors

+ Immigration has a positive impact on productivity. => businessman expand

their careers and creates more job

+ “EU migrants in the UK contribute £2,300/year more to public finances than

the average UK resident– while non-EU migrants contribute £840/year less
than average” (The Fiscal Impact of Immigration on the UK, 2018)

How this argument is criticized: cách 2 nhóm phản bác nhau, tập trung vào cách
thức đưa ra argument (thông qua báo chí, diễn đàn, debate, lập luận như nào)

- Most statistics show that immigration contributes to the UK economy more

than takes out.

- Leavers’ response: they don’t believe in the statistics.

- British journalist and Brexit supporter Douglas Murray argues that Labour
governments at the turn of the century “massively understated the numbers of
immigrants to be expected," creating public distrust of current pledges to keep
migration under control.

Sovereignty:

- Leave: The EU threatens British sovereignty

- Remain: Disagree with Leave

Evidences:

- Leave: EU drains power from the UK Parliament.

+ Parliament can be said to have given up some of its sovereignty when it passed
the European Communities Act 1972, enabling the UK to join what was then the
European Economic Community, at the beginning of 1973, and requiring courts in
the UK to apply EU law.
 + Over the past few decades, a series of EU treaties have shifted a growing amount
of power from individual member states to the central EU bureaucracy in Brussels.
On subjects where the EU has been granted authority — like competition policy,
agriculture, and copyright and patent law — EU rules override national laws.

- The UK government "cannot remove or reduce VAT, cannot support a steel plant
through troubled times, cannot build the houses we need where they're needed and
cannot deport all the individuals who shouldn't be in this country" Micheal said.

- Those who want to leave the EU say the only sovereignty that matters is the
ability to make all our laws in the UK. ⇒ the EU limits the UK government's
ability to control its own affairs.

- Remain:

+ EU membership involved a worthwhile trade of sovereignty for influence: in

return for agreeing to abide by EU rules, Britain had a seat around the negotiating
table and its voice was amplified on the world stage as a result.

+ Quitting the EU will not enhance UK sovereignty.

The EU helps sharing and extending UK sovereignty to mainland Europe

- British sovereignty is already limited by its membership of a host of international

organizations and by being signatory to a large number of treaties.

- EU membership involved a worthwhile exchange of sovereignty for influence: in

return for agreeing to abide by EU rules, Britain had a seat around the negotiating
table and its voice was amplified on the world stage as a result.

- The British government would still be bound by membership of Nato, the UN, the
WTO and various treaties and agreements with other nations

- Britain is represented in the European Parliament and on the Council of Ministers.

Only around 15% of their laws come from Brussels and they cover areas such as
consumer rights and workers’ rights which are welcomed by most people. Britain
wins the majority of votes on the Council.

How this argument is criticized:

+ In a globalized world, all nation-states make continual trade-offs on sovereignty.

+ Leaving the EU will not help the UK gain full sovereignty due to treaties made with
the UN, WTO, NATO, etc.

+ Freed from EU rules and bureaucracy, the UK will be free to negotiate deals that are
in Britain's best interest, and this will be far more beneficial to British business than
being obliged to set up international deals in the framework of the European Union, as
happens now.

Other non-economic arguments:

Leave Remain

Immigration • It is impossible to control • Immigrants, especially

This issue immigration as a member of those from the EU, pay more
covers the EU. in taxes than they take out.
immigration and
free movement • Public services are under • Cameron's EU deal means
within Europe. strain because of the number of in-work benefits for new EU
migrants. migrant workers will be
limited for the first four
• High immigration has driven years.
down wages for British
workers. • Outside the EU the UK
would still have to accept
• Points-based system for free movement to gain full
migrants to the UK should be access to the single market.
extended to include those from • Immigration is good for the
the EU. economy.

Sovereignty and • Most UK laws are made in • Only a minority of UK laws

laws Brussels. derive from the EU.
How far the UK
has the ability to • Other member states can • Britain retains a veto in
make its own force through decisions against many important areas.
laws and decide the UK’s wishes.
how it is • Cameron’s EU deal allows
governed. • The British government has national parliaments to block
repeatedly been defeated in legislation.
cases brought to the ECJ.

• Leaving the EU is the only • Some sharing of

sovereignty is crucial to
 way to regain full sovereignty.
Policing and • Being in the EU makes it
security easier for terrorists to come to
Cross-border the UK.
policing and
security • Supremacy of EU courts
collaboration but makes it harder to deport
also freedom of violent criminals.
movement.
• Britain would still cooperate
with other European countries
to fight terrorism after Brexit,
as currently happens with the
US.
* Taken back control of the
waters. The deal struck with the
EU brought more quota for
British fishermen and new
opportunities for coastal
communities
Travel and • There is no reason that
living abroad leaving the EU would make it
This issue harder to go on holiday in
covers travel for Europe.
leisure or work,
and living in • International law means
other EU current expats could not be
countries. forced to return to the UK.
• The UK has deals with lots of
other countries to help Britons
living abroad.
The UK grants no automatic
rights to move to other EU
countries to live and work.
enable fair trade across
Europe.
• Britain does not have open
borders because it is not in
the Schengen area.
• Europol membership allows
the UK to share intelligence
and fight cross-border crime.
• The European Arrest
Warrant has returned over
1,000 criminals to face
justice in the UK.
The freedoms of the high
seas for all countries
(including landlocked
countries) (fishing and of
scientific research,
construction of artificial
islands and installations, …)
• Flights to Europe and using
mobile phones on holiday are
cheaper thanks to the EU.
• British tourists enjoy free or
cheaper healthcare in other
EU countries.
• There is no guarantee that
expats in the EU would be
able to stay after Brexit.
Freedom to travel between
different EU countries
 *Overview: While Remainers have their intellectual bases (which are facts &
statistics) to reinforce their arguments, Leavers tend to consider this debate as an
emotional case.

2. Immigration:- One third (33%) [of leave voters] said the main reason was that
leaving "offered the best chance for theUK to regain control over immigration and its
own borders”.

- “Free movement will end, with our own Parliament deciding our domestic
immigration policy in the national interest. New controls will be put in place as part
of a fairer immigration system, which focuses on a person's skills, not where they
come from.”

- Evidence:

+ UK’s border controls are under constant attack from the European Court of Justice
(ECJ). Last year, theECJ said that the UK’s Government cannot require migrants
from other EU states to have a permit issued by UK authorities, even though permits
from other EU countries are systematically forged, some EUcountries sell their
passports, and the UK have no control over the way other EU countries issue their
passports. This makes it easier for terrorists and criminals to get into Britain.

+ The Charter stops the UK removing foreign criminals and terror suspects from the
UK if it would violate their ‘private or family life’. Recently Britain was stopped from
deporting an alcoholic to a foreign country that bans alcohol on the grounds it would
violate his human rights.

+ ‘Rising demand’ for NHS services is one of the principal reasons identified by
regulators for the NHS's forecast £2.4 billion deficit in 2015-2016.

- How have the arguments been criticized?: Many Leavers now admit that leaving the
EU will not actually reduce immigration more than a fraction, if Britain wants to
continue to benefit from Access to the European single market.