The Vulnerable, the Dependant and the Scrounger: Intersectional Reflections on Disability, Care, Health and Migration in the Brexit Project

Abstract

The NHS, medical tourism and benefit abuse played a central role in the referendum vote. Nonetheless, the (anticipated) impact of the UK’s exit on the experience of disability, health and care are marginalised in analyses of and policies on Brexit. I pull these from the margins to explore their impact at the centre of the Brexit Project. Doing so, I explore the Brexit Project in this chapter from various angles; such as the impact of the loss of EU funding, trade barriers and (post-EU) deregulation on the availability of medication and medical devices, on healthcare workers and on social care provision; the impact on disability rights and disabled people’s in(ter)dependence; gender and migration specific impact; and, particularly, the impact of the Brexit Project on disabled EU citizens’ and EU carers’ (un)equal access, or the fear thereof, to “settled status” and benefits and services.