‘Taking back control’ and ending free movement were central to the politics of Brexit. But what has happened to the migration-citizenship regime since the UK left the European Union? How are changes to the regime implicated in state-making and statecraft as the UK redefines itself and seeks a new position on the world stage? And what does this make visible about the role of migration governance within the post-Brexit political project?

This paper turns attention to the apparent contradictions, contingencies and dynamics of the post-Brexit migration-citizenship regime. It emphasises that making sense of this requires greater attention to the reorientation of Britain’s place in the world, to argue for the coalescence of ideology, politics and geopolitics in the making of this regime past and present. Situating the current regime in a longer, and refashioned history Britain and its borders over the past century, it foregrounds a new conceptual framework that considers the interplay of the global political economy of migration and citizenship, geopolitical struggles and crises, and the domestic politics in the development of the migration-citizenship regime. In this way, it offers a bold and timely analysis that highlights the interweaving of coloniality and geopolitics in the post-Brexit governance of migration and citizenship.