A graduate is to have her dissertation included in the Tynwald Library.

Chloe Sloane, 21, recently graduated from the University of Birmingham with a first-class degree in policy, politics and economics.

For her dissertation, Chloe revisited Richard Prentice’s study into Manx resistance to immigration from the 1990s.

That paper considered Manx residents’ sentiments towards immigration alongside the extent to which historic nationalist sentiments are still present

Chloe’s dissertation, titled ‘The Manxness of Man: Renewed immigration to the island and the nationalist response to it’, sought to replicate that survey and compare the results to see how and to what extent those attitudes had survived or changed.

She said: ‘Coming from the island, I was passionate about writing my dissertation on something Manx, and in the subjects that I was doing, as it covered social policy, politics, economics, I wanted to try and incorporate all three. So that I was really covering what I’ve learned over the course of my degree.

‘Obviously, with our proposed population rise to 100,000 people, anything immigration-orientated, is going to be quite topical.’

With 243 people responding to her research, Chloe said she can’t generalise it across the island’s population, but she did find that ‘whilst nationalism and resistance to immigration is still present on the island, it is substantially reduced amongst our population now or appears to be’.

She added that the ‘form of expression of that resistance is sort of in a more subtle and nuanced way’.

Clare Barber MHK has told her that her dissertation would be added to the Tynwald Library.

While the number of ‘proper Manxies’ with four grandparents has been on the decline, Chloe found ‘there does appear to be a substantial uptake and increase of awareness when it comes to Manx culture’.

Chloe said this could be attributed to several reasons, for instance Manx being taught in schools and the role of Manx National Heritage as well as the way people coming to the island have taken an interest in our island’s culture and history.

As for those wondering if the results just showed that younger people are more open to immigration, they were, but not by as much as you’d think.

Having now graduated, Chloe is working at Equiom and is planning a backpacking trip to Asia and Australia with a friend.

She also wants to return to work and settle down on the island in future and possibly even go into politics.