Ever since we had the ‘Brexit’ vote, the UK government has been pretty cagey about what it means for us and the other 1.4 million Brits in the EU and 3.5 million EU Citizens in the UK. (although if this is the best they could come up with, perhaps that’s a good thing).
This wasn’t quite as much of a worry for us in Germany as it was for EU citizens in the UK: we haven’t been attacked, told to “go home” or had anything shoved in our letterbox; our local immigration office was almost comically horrified when we asked if we may have to leave after 2019.
This week the UK Government made a heroic effort to “claim the moral high ground”*, by leaking some papers suggesting they might perhaps allow EU residents to stay. Maybe. They were pretty unclear exactly what rights EU residents would have, who gets them, the time and cost involved (you can bet it won’t be free) and a whole heap of other niggly but important details, but one thing was for sure:
“…former Brexit minister David Jones said: “It’s got to be reciprocal.“
Which is a bit different from their response when The EU unilaterally suggested this solution in 2017 and it was rejected by the UK…
Only a really cynical person would suggest that the UK gov deliberately rejected those proposals last year, so now they can try and claim the credit…
*Possibly having had someone explain what ‘moral’ meant
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August 28, 2018 at 3:04 pm
Phil
I’ve never quite understood why anyone living abroad shouldn’t want to become a national of that country as soon as possible rather than being “British” but not living here. Since a certain vote, being German sounds even more appealing…
August 28, 2018 at 6:16 pm
Andy in Germany
It isn’t always that simple. Despite the constant claims of the Brexit camp, every EU country including the UK is sovereign and can have different rules about how long you have to live there, before applying for citizenship, how much money you need or if you can keep your old nationality.
Sometimes the host country allows dual nationality but the home country doesn’t and people may need to be able to return to look after relatives.
Sometimes it’s an emotional bond: I am still British despite living in Germany for many years.
My problem with he whole situation is that we were not allowed to vote, so now I’m having to sort out the mess because some people in the UK didn’t like having Polish neighbours or believed something written on the side of a bus.