Brits in Europe aren’t all old old and rich – and thanks to Priti Patel we’re about to lose our livelihoods

No one knows what motivated Priti Patel to call time on free movement for EU27 citizens on 31 October, come what may. But we can be pretty certain that the prospect of reciprocal consequences for the 1.3 million UK nationals living on the continent weren’t number one on her list of priorities when she made it.

That’s not surprising given that the UK government has consistently framed free movement as a one-way immigration system that allows people from the EU to live and work in the UK unfettered and unchecked. The fact that so many UK citizens have also benefited, on a reciprocal basis, from free movement appears not to have registered with large numbers of our fellow citizens. For them, Aufwiedersehen Pet, was just an amusing television show, not a reminder of a time when jobless Brits left the UK and travelled to Germany in search of work after the destruction of British industry in the 1980s.

And reciprocity is the key word. Throughout the negotiations whenever we’ve been to meetings with officials from EU 27 governments, we are constantly told that they want to be as generous to Brits as they can but that their hands are (understandably) tied politically because they cannot give us a better outcome than their own nationals living in the UK. And even that is based on the assumption that there is some kind of Brexit deal. But what happens to Brits on the continent if there isn’t?

Fortunately, the immigration system in most EU countries is better equipped than the UK’s. The vast majority have registration schemes, so they already know who is likely to be in the country. But even then, if Priti Patel carries through on her threat, there might be problems at the border because UK citizens won’t have applied for their new status as the application period isn’t due to start until after the official Brexit date.

For those in France the situation is even more worrying: the country has no compulsory registration scheme, meaning tens of thousands of UK citizens living there do not have an official document that proves they were resident before Brexit. If Britons leave France and then try to return, there will be serious questions over how to distinguish between UK citizens who are resident in France and those who are merely tourists or are on business.

Looking more broadly, ending free movement so abruptly will slam the door on opportunities for Brits from working class backgrounds who don’t have the money or connections that those from wealthier families do. Even something as simple as moving to Spain at the end of your working life will become harder because the Spanish government requires third country nationals (non-EU) to prove income and private health insurance cover of almost €30,000 a year. It’s not that dissimilar from the £36,000 minimum income requirement for would be immigrants recently announced (again) by Priti Patel.

Contrary to popular stereotypes, 80 per cent of British people living on the continent are of working age or younger, and many of us came from lower income backgrounds. Within the British in Europe group we have musicians, caterers, drivers, aircraft fitters, all of whom used our free movement rights to build up lives and careers to support ourselves and our families.

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In my own case, I grew up in a working class family in Bradford. I was the first child in my immediate family to go to university where I studied languages. I met my German-Chilean husband there and now live with him and our dual national children in Luxembourg. I run a public health NGO in Brussels. None of this would have been possible without EU free movement because I would not have had the money to meet strict financial conditions for non-EU nationals or to apply for expensive visas and private health insurance.

As someone who crosses the Luxembourg-Belgian border several times a month for work, free movement is a must have. I also see the checks that other EU countries have in place to manage free movement so that the impact on local communities and public budgets doesn’t get out of hand.

This is why we were all incredulous that Theresa May wouldn’t initially ask or push for free movement to be included in the citizens’ rights section of the withdrawal agreement. How, we wondered, could she claim we were her first priority and that we would be allowed to carry on our lives as normal without understanding that without free movement the lives we’d built for ourselves in Europe were about to come toppling down?

Of course, now we understand a great deal more about her mindset and we are where we are, namely the dreadful position she negotiated us into.

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Whether it’s in October, or two years down the line, the reality is that the UK is trumpeting the deliberate stripping of rights and opportunities from all its own citizens and nationals as some kind of great achievement when in fact it’s putting all of us at a huge professional and social disadvantage compared to our European neighbours.

But that doesn’t fit on the side of a bus very easily. Which is why we’ll never hear them talk about it.

Fiona Godfrey is co-chair of British in Europe

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