A Rural Village Voted to Leave the U.K., Stirring Britain’s Migration Debate A plan to house 1,250 asylum seekers on the outskirts of Piddington prompted a symbolic independence vote, highlighting a growing dilemma for the government.

“What a week we’ve had,” a triumphant Tim McNally told dozens of his neighbors in Piddington’s village hall.

“I said to you guys, we are going to turn Piddington, this small village, into the largest village on this earth,” Mr. McNally, the chair of the parish council, said on a Tuesday night in late September. “That we are going to put it on the map.”And they had.

The village of just over 350 people voted on Sept. 15 to become independent of the United Kingdom, in protest against a government plan to house 1,250 male asylum seekers in a nearby former military site.

Piddington has not, in fact, broken away from the United Kingdom, as the referendum had no legal basis. But it catapulted the rural village in Oxfordshire to the top of news sites and social media feeds, a publicity coup that Mr. McNally likened to a “blueprint” for other places facing the possible arrival of asylum seekers.

Piddington swiftly became an example of how a small place could challenge a national government over concerns that inhabitants felt were being ignored. In this case, how could a small village with no shops or pubs cope with more than a thousand unemployed men suddenly on its outskirts?

The campaign, which at times amplified far-right talking points about immigrants, also illustrated how divisive migration has become around Europe. In Britain, while asylum applications are down since a peak late last year, they remain consistently higher than the pre-2021 average.