From Planet 224

Following our invitation in the previous issue of Planet to pool ideas for new policy initiatives and new forms of Welsh internationalism once we leave the EU, Sioned Pearce and Stuart Fox offer a future direction for Welsh anti-poverty policy and cross-border collaboration on regeneration in anticipation of EU structural funds coming to an end.

What is the future direction for Welsh anti-poverty strategy as the UK relinquishes membership of the EU? The Welsh Government presence and persistence in Brexit negotiations over anti-poverty funding with the UK government must be a political priority, and must be done with the full support of other parties in the National Assembly for Wales. In addition, it is of paramount importance that a counter-narrative to the conflation of economic migration and poverty is pursued by the Welsh Government. Neither economic migration nor the EU itself are the cause of deeply rooted, long-term poverty in Wales. However, the belief among marginalised and disenfranchised groups throughout the UK that these are the main causes of poverty contributed to the Leave vote in June, and could hinder future Welsh development prospects.

About the authors

Sioned Pearce is a qualitative Research Associate in political sociology at the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Data and Methods (WISERD) at Cardiff University. Her area of expertise is constitutional change, devolution and deprivation. She is also co- running a project on Young People and Politics currently focused on the EU referendum in June 2016 with Stuart Fox.

Stuart Fox is a quantitative Research Associate at the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Data and Methods (WISERD) at Cardiff University. Areas of interest include: the political and civic participation and engagement of young people; the causes, consequences and manifestations of political alienation and apathy and the effect of social evolution – including changes in social capital and post-materialism – on civic and political engagement.