British freedoms to enter and leave EU states as they please have become a thing of the past, as since January 1, new British expatriates – including those with second-homes overseas – can only spend 90 out of every 180 days on the continent, unless they take up residency overseas. Hundreds of thousands of British expatriates have been thrown into a period of adjustment as a result of the UK’s changed relationship with the EU, four years after the Brexit referendum was held in 2016.
UN data for 2019 showed that 1.3 million Britons lived in the EU, with Spain being the most popular destination for British migrants (302,000 people), followed by Ireland (293,000), France (177,000), Germany (99,000) and Italy (66,000). The end to freedom of movement has led to anger directed towards the British government and the EU for the lack of information and support received amongst British expatriate communities, and towards Leave voters for failing to understand the far-reaching consequences of British travel to the EU.
Fear amongst British expatriates living in Spain
A report by Karen O’Reilly of Goldsmiths College, University of London, has found that despite guidance on securing their futures by registering their residence in Spain, many British ex-pats abroad with complex familial situations have fallen through the net. The report stresses that the stereotype of the British ex-pat in Spain – a white, older, working-class retiree – no longer represents the diverse ages and backgrounds of UK nationals in the country, including young people fluent in Spanish. The lack of clarity from Spanish authorities, and the inability to pursue a nuanced policy that caters for the sheer range of British patterns of migration to Spain, have led to a sense of the real inadequacy of a “one-size-fits-all” policy.
Many British expatriates, including Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead who has written a column for the Metro, have expressed their disappointment with the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, and the sense that they worry for their relationships with Spanish nationals when they return to the country under the new terms of the relationship. Pickard-Whitehead recalled a conversation with a Spanish friend, who ‘assumed everyone in Britain had voted to leave the EU and saw [the decision] as an insult to his country.’ The consequent deterioration of personal relationships between British expatriates and EU nationals have also declined given fractious media coverage both by the British right-wing press and similarly hostile rhetoric on the continent, making for a potentially less hospitable welcome in a post-COVID world.
When is a migrant not an ex-pat?
The case of British nationals in the EU calls into question the difference between the often politically-loaded terms “expatriate” and “migrant”. The UKRI-funded UK in a Changing Europe project has produced a podcast in 2017 on this very subject concerning British ex-pats in Singapore, who were asked which term they use. Dr Sophie Cranston of Loughborough University described how an ex-pat is, by definition, an individual who lives abroad temporarily, and intends to return to the UK, whilst a migrant is someone who moves overseas permanently and assimilates within local practices.
Dr Michaela Benson, a research lead at the project, described how she had always termed British nationals in Europe as a “migrant” population, and how the Brexit referendum has brought new attention to the meanings of these two words. The notion of expatriates, she claimed, is itself bound up with the notion of an “ex-pat package” – a deal of often generous financial incentives including accommodation, education and healthcare for British nationals overseas – which are becoming less and less common in an age of globalisation.
In rejecting the term, Dr Cranston argued, British nationals overseas are rejecting the “colonial associations” built into the idea of expatriates – the cliche of a retired individual sitting and drinking alcohol on the beach without engaging with local populations and cultures – whilst the use of “migrant”, Dr Benson argued, is a political decision to demonstrate a British national’s long-term investment in EU-member states, and to make clear their vested interests in the countries in which they are resident that the end to freedom of movement places under threat.
The renewed attention to terminology also draws attention to anti-immigration sentiment amongst the British right, as Dr Cranston noted how UKIP would use the term “ex-pat” to refer to British nationals in Europe, but would not use the term “ex-pat” to refer to EU nationals coming to the UK. The use of the term “migrant” by British nationals in the EU themselves, then, is ‘to separate themselves from the anti-immigration discourse that would potentially affect their lives’ under the deal.
The UK’s changed relationship with the EU is likely to cause further difficulties for British nationals overseas in the short-term, as both the UK and the EU navigate the shortcomings of the Withdrawal Agreement with particular reference to the rights of British migrants in EU-member states.
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