Section:GDN 1N PaGe:10 Edition Date:190907 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/9/2019 17:54 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
National
Politics- The Guardian Saturday 7 September 2019
10‘We feel betrayed’
Anxious Britons
living in EU fear
being left in limbo
Jennifer Rankin Brussels
Stephen Burgen Barcelona
Kate Connolly Berlin
Kim Willsher ParisI
f Brexit ends in no deal, many
British people who live in
the European Union will
become foreigners overnight- “third-country nationals”
in legal language. There is
no EU-equivalent of settled status
for the 1.3 million British citizens
in EU27 countries, although the
European commission has urged EU
governments to “take a generous
approach” to securing their rights
should Britain crash out.
Many countries have announced
plans to guarantee British nationals’
residenc y rights in the event of
a no-deal Brexit. But questions
would remain about qualifi cations,
pensions and long-term status.
For many Britons living on the
continent, this is why no deal is
deeply worrying, adding to a sense
of anger and frustration that they
have been forgotten.
Jacqui Brown , 48, who has lived in
a village in western France with her
family since 2004, has been losing
sleep over a possible no-deal Brexit.
She and her husband, Adrian, 49,
run an IT-services company, which
is based on his providing training
courses around Europe. If Britain
crashes out of the EU without a deal,
she fears that the family’s income
will be drastically compromised.
“The things that worry me most
in the small hours of the night is
Adrian’s ability to move easily
and cheaply between home in
France, the UK and wherever the
client wants him to go to work. If
travel becomes more diffi cult, less
frequent, more expensive, that eats
into our profi ts.”
She worries that the Frenchauthorities will require the family to
have a minimum income to operate
their French-registered limited
company as non-EU nationals.
“My worry is always as third-
country nationals, we will have to
have ‘x’ amount of money to fi t in
with the rules that are there. And
Brexit has already compromised our
earnings because of the sharp fall in
our exchange rate.”
Deal or no deal, she says her life is
going to change. Currently serving as
a local councillor in her village, she
will no longer be eligible to stand in
elections after Brexit.
“For the last three years, I have
been angry, upset; you feel betrayed
by the UK,” Jacqui said. “It just
seems that we don’t count.”Kathryn, 51, and Jon Dobson, 57,
have lived in the Poitou-Charentes
region of western France, with their
three daughters – Jennifer, 22, Emily,
20, and Sarah,18 – since 2003.
The Dobsons publish an English-
language publication called Living
Magazine. It is estimated that the
Poitou-Charentes region is home to a
third of Britons living in France.
Kathryn says her primary
concern over a “hard Brexit ” is
for her daughters, who are now in
limbo because of the prospect of an
imminent end to their freedom of
movement.
They have lived most of their
lives in France, but may not qualify
for French citizenship or residency
cards because they have no salaried
jobs or insuffi cient incomes. They
are now also worried about studying
or working abroad for fear of not
being able to return to reside in
France with their parents.
“When we came to France we
thought the one thing we could give
our children that money couldn’t
buy was a second language and
that inspired us to move to an EU
country. We thought our children
would benefi t the UK and we didn’t
even think about changing our
nationality,” Kathryn said.
“Our children, who should be
enjoying the most mobile years of
their lives, are in limbo. Like many
15 - to 20-year-olds they are trapped.
They are not able to spread their
wings as they should at their age.
“They feel abandoned by their
own country while at the same time
they cannot get citizenship in the
country where they have spent most
of their lives.”Jane Golding , a Berlin-based lawyer,
says Britons in Germany were feeling
“a certain amount of relief ” after‘[Free movement] is a
beautiful dream full
of opportunity and
it’s being destroyed
by the government’Sara Gordon
Schoolteacher in Berlinfreedom of movement for EU
nationals to the UK would end if
Britain left without a deal. The
government was later forced to
abandon the idea , after experts
warned it was nearly impossible to
implement. The British in Europe
group feared the policy could harm
rights for British nationals on the
continent, if EU27 governments
copied the British move. “The
key point on citizens rights’ is
reciprocity,” said Golding, before the
U-turn was announced.
“I fear a hardening of the attitudes
across the EU27, or simply a wait-
and-see approach about what the
British government might or might
not do, and that that will lead to
even more uncertainty for us.
“Even if that doesn’t happen,
the feeling of uncertainty is huge.
We’ve been there before – a looming
date [29 March ]. Now we’re going
through another phase that feels
like it’s leading to a cliff edge and
many people – whose families and
livelihoods are here – are fi nding it
really hard to cope.”Sara Gordon , a schoolteacher in
Berlin, describes herself as “one
of the lucky ones”. She now has a
permanent right to live and continue‘Angry, upset ... betrayed’
Adrian and Jacqui Brownthe German government published
legislation enabling them to stay
in the country. “We still have to go
through the details with a fi ne-tooth
comb but certainly for those who’ve
already been here for fi ve years or
more it was looking pretty good,”
said Golding, who is co-chair of the
British in Europe campaign group.
She was alarmed, however, by
Priti Patel’s announcement thatRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws