Setting aside the causes, process and history of the departure of the UK from the EU, British immigrants in the EU need a renewed narrative; otherwise this highly emotive and vexed matter will eat away the lifeblood of the substantial British diaspora in Europe for the foreseeable future and there are more important matters at hand. Accurate and unemotional language is needed to sort out the wheat from the chaff. It is the continued use of inaccurate and misleading words that have created the false narrative, which blocks the renewal of British democracy and opens the door to the populist and unreliable agenda. We need a true and fair view of the British diaspora in Europe.
The truth is that up to 2 million British people, legally resident in the European Union, are British immigrants in the EU. Without exception, every one of them moved to live permanently in a foreign country of their own free will.[1] The current excess baggage of British exceptionalism needs to be jettisoned and every British person in the EU needs to affirm their immigrant status, first and foremost. A renewed narrative is urgently needed. Yes, expatriate[2] but only as a consequence of immigrant status. Part of the British dis-ease/disease is the myth, obfuscation and downright lies conjured up about immigration. This is not about some shadowy and slightly alien group, it is about us.
However, to be fair, our status as expatriates also needs to be recognised in our homeland, the UK. As British passport holders, the UK state, as defined in parliament and in government needs to accord its worldwide diaspora the respect that should be due to all its citizens, wherever they legally reside. Many other civilised countries respect such pass-porting and lifelong membership. Indeed even the current Tory party has included a promise in no less than three Manifestos, to reform the current so-called 15 year Rule. As part of the wider renewal of British democracy, and in particular, reform of the electoral system, the voting rights of expatriates need to be embraced. For too long British citizens abroad have been ignored and abandoned; fobbed off with temporary voting rights and vacuous promises of jam tomorrow. The politically convenient “15 year cap” on parliamentary representation in the “mother” of parliaments is a national disgrace.
As the current British Prime Minister seeks to bolster “Global Britain, it should be recognised that British citizens, who have emigrated, are in fact a national asset; they live, work and engage in the worldwide community including, on our doorstep, in the EU[3]. No embassy or consular office has the reach and influence of British Immigrants and thus they should be nurtured and encouraged, as their contribution is pivotal to the promotion and future prosperity of Britain.
British Immigrants should affirm their status; Britain needs to recognise them.
A true and fair approach is the basis of a renewed UK.
Paul Fisher – British Immigrant resident in France
[1]. An immigrant is a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.
[2]. An expatriate is a person who lives outside their native country.
[3]. According to UK government figures, some 80% of British citizens in the EU are working.