Digital by default: the literacies, legibilities and legacies of the UK’s post-Brexit EU settled status regime

This paper explores the significance of the UK’s post-Brexit residency agreement for EU citizens – ‘Settled Status’ (EUSS) – as a ‘digital by default’ immigration regime. As the UK transitions to a digital-only immigration platform, EU citizens have, without consent, already been the subjects of experimentation within this new approach. Drawing on interviews with Polish citizens in the UK, this article analyses the lived experience and longer-term implications of this new digital bordering. Using a conceptual framework of literacies, legibilities and legacies we argue that the digital nature of EUSS has produced new exclusions, inequalities, vulnerabilities and anxieties. The move to a digital status has shaped who can access and navigate this system (literacies), tightened who is legally recognised within it (legibilities), and ultimately challenged trust in Settled Status as a long-term and secure immigration status (legacies). The findings here not only contribute to understanding EU citizens’ post-Brexit experiences, they also offer important new insights into the day-to-day realities and ongoing risks of a digital-only immigration status.