Title: Brexit: Why Britain voted to leave the EU · TheJournal.ie
Headings: Brexit: Why Britain voted to leave the EU
Brexit: Why Britain voted to leave the EU
If you’re struggling to understand how Brexit happened, here’s what the Leave side promised voters.
1. They were promised more money
2. They want autonomy
3. They’re concerned about immigration
4. They see the European Union as ‘failed experiment’
Read: LIVEBLOG: The fallout and reaction to the UK’s seismic decision on the EU
Read: BREXIT: The UK has voted to leave the European Union

Content: 3. They’re concerned about immigration
UKIP party leader Nigel Farage holds his passport as he addresses media and party members during a speech on the EU referendum. Source: Frank Augstein/Press Association Images
The European Union’s freedom of movement policy has been at the heart of the EU referendum debate. The law, which guarantees citizens of the EU the right to travel, to work, and to live in other EU countries, coupled with the financial crisis in 2008 has brought a surge of immigrants from poorer EU states to the UK in the years since the recession. In 2015 Britain took in 184,000 EU migrants, or over 500 people per day: the biggest net migration figures on record. The Leave campaign promised to limit this influx of migrants to tens of thousands, which seemed like a mammoth task at the start, and even more so now that Nigel Farage has also expressed doubt on reaching this target figure. However, there are also Brexit voters who wish to encourage migration from other countries by leaving the EU. Voters such as Tom Harwood, chair of Students for Britain, believe that the EU freedom of movement encourages the stereotype of Europe as a nation of ‘privileged white people’.