Decision-making of Welsh People in 2016 United Kingdom European Union Membership Referendum

On 23rd June 2016 majority of Welsh people voted to leave in United Kingdom European Union membership. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to analyse voting behaviour of voters from region which economically profited from the European Union membership and to find out which main factors determined their decision-making. Intergroup threat theory will be used in this work for describing realistic and symbolic threats with origin from immigration. Process of threat perception will be monitored from 2004 enlargement of the European Union till the referendum. A part of the work will be to describe the impact of 2008 financial crisis on Welsh people relationship to the European Union. The relationship will be determined by anti-European United Kingdom Independence Party preferences after the crisis. In this context others main Welsh political parties attitudes towards the European Union and the referendum will be explored. Main perceived realistic and symbolic threats by Welsh people will be compared with real situation in Wales. After this comparison, it turns out in which electoral districts the threats appeared the most and if they were real or if it was a consequence of anti-immigration and anti-European campaigns