Should UK Expats In EU Member States Stay Where They Are?

As the seemingly never-ending nightmare of Brexit drags on, expat Britons scattered all over EU member states are considering their options as regards leaving or staying and hoping for the best.

The vast majority of UK expats’ host countries have responded generously as regards the human rights of those unwittingly caught in the chaos, attempting to provide as much reassurance as they’re able in the realisation of a British expat exodus would damage the economies of the many smaller towns and rural areas now colonised by Britons in retirement or as successful small business owners. In the major cities, the possibility of experienced expat professionals packing up and leaving due to visa and residency issues isn’t relished by their multinational corporation employers.

Back in the UK, as the Brexit scenario enters yet another reorganisation of government as well as timescale, pro-Brexit candidates for Prime Minister of the entire mess are behaving much as they did in the run-up to the 2016 referendum. A motley crew at best and totally self-serving at worst, none offer a sensible solution to the inconceivable results of an ‘advisory referendum’ in which many British expats living in the EU were disenfranchised from voting, just as they have been during the recent EU MP elections.

Reports suggesting an increase in the numbers of Brits overseas who’re seriously thinking of giving up and going home may or may not be accurate, but what will those for whom the option is a reality face when they arrive back in their country of birth? What they won’t find is obvious, as the spin spun during the weeks and months before the referendum has now been exposed as a pack of politically engendered lies. Even the Brexit bus with its disingenuous NHS message has been exposed as a scam, and Trump’s expressed desire to have US pharmaceuticals take over the free British healthcare service as part of a post-Brexit trade deal should strike fear into the hearts of present-day British residents and returning expats alike.

Pundits in the financial world agree Brexit is playing havoc with the UK’s economy and sterling is heading lower by the week, with S&P Global Ratings stating Brexit has cost a stunning £60 million to date and is continuing to hemorrhage cash at a horrendous rate. Taking everything into consideration, perhaps British expats now living in EU member states would, in the long term, be far better staying where they are and surviving as best they can, as the UK isn’t likely to crawl out of this trough of politically-motivated sewage for a good number of years, by which time there’ll be little left to salvage.