As person who grew up in Luxembourg – which, apart for being a tax haven, is also well known as one of the six founding members of the EU – I have never really understood the arguments for Brexit. And on a personal level, the vote felt like a huge betrayal from a country that I invested so much in and considered my home. Let me explain: I’ve lived in the UK for five and a half years. Yet I already know I am not eligible for the permanent residency card. That’s because I first studied for four years – which, as any student knows, means spending a lot of money in rent, bills and student fees.
Unable to find a full-time job straight after my studies, I moved abroad. And after going through a long process of sending out CVs, cover letters and interviews (that’s for those arguing that EU citizens are “stealing their jobs”), I finally found a permanent position that allowed me to come back and build a life here. This means that I don’t have the required continuous five years to apply for the coveted residency document.
Although I am happy to comply with the rules, it would be helpful if someone, nearly six months after the UK voted to leave the EU, could give me any indication on the next steps to take. Put simply, do I stay or do I go?
Some confusion is understandable. Vote Leave campaigners promised that EU citizens already living in the UK “will automatically be granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK and will be treated no less favourably than they are at present.” Yet the details of how this will be implemented have not yet been resolved, and some of it could be quite complex.
Assuming that free movement comes to an end after Article 50 is invoked and the Brexit process is formalised, EU citizens may need to obtain documents demonstrating their residence rights within a relatively short period of time, in order to distinguish themselves from newly arriving EU citizens who do not continue to enjoy free movement rights.
This essentially means that the 3 million non-British UK residents, including myself, need some answers and need them fast. Since the June referendum, I find myself looking at the threat of either being deported or staying here illegally, unless the government issues a decree that we can all stay. Just a day after the result announcement, one of my neighbours asked me if I already had made plans to move away as he would really prefer sharing the house with a British citizen. And he is not the only one. During casual conversations, it somehow became fine for people to tell me things such as “You shouldn’t take this vote so personally,” or, “Don’t worry, you have a full-time job; you’ll be fine”, as If I should be ashamed of who I am in reality, and my ability to speak English “well enough” and work as a journalist will shield me from deportation. I am fortunate enough to have an education and a family that can support me. So if it comes to it, I’ll find another job and will build my life elsewhere, although even admitting this feels somehow surreal. But I feel for people who are older, and have families, investments or businesses in the UK. What will happen to them? I wish EU citizens were part of the conversation and that British people were more informed about our plight.
The latest arguments I have heard are that foreign students are likely to remain a part of the Government’s target to cut immigration to the tens of thousands, and that EU residents in the UK will need “some sort” of special ID if they choose to stay – this doesn’t help. This country has been such a big part of the majority of my adult life, and I will wait to hear what will happen by the end of March, but it is hard to deal with the uncertainty. Becoming a UK citizen should be a happy and celebratory moment – that’s how I always imagined it. But that idea is very different from being reduced to little more than a bargaining chip in negotiations over which I have no control.