Which EU nation has the most citizens living abroad? That’s a question I doubt many can answer, and the answer will surprise many, for it is Britain.
When we talk about movement of people, the discussion is almost invariably focused on people coming into the UK, but about five million Britons, about 8% of our entire nation, live abroad — about 1.3 million of them in other EU nations.
By contrast, about 0.8% of Americans live abroad, and about 3% of Spaniards.
You’d think that we’d be one of the most pro-migration nations on earth, judging by how much we travel and live around the world.
And despite what you might think from the front pages of
British tabloids, there’s evidence that the British people are. Certainly we’re among the most welcoming to those in desperate need of a new home – refugees. An Amnesty International study found that 87% of Britons want to say “refugees welcome”.
Sadly, major British institutions like our largest political parties and our mainstream media are behind the curve of public opinion.Freedom of movement in the EU is an equality issue.Through recent years, we’ve seen a toxic race to the bottom on
immigration rhetoric, something that I called out through my period as leader, starting with this speech in 2013.
Immigrants were a convenient scapegoat for government policies – low wages, crowded schools and hospitals, housing shortages and high costs were blamed on them, rather than the decisions of successive governments, Labour, Coalition and Tory, on privatisation, on austerity, on regional policy.
The debate since then – driven in part by public compassion over events like the awful death of Alan Kurdi and reaction against the explicit
racism of
Nigel Farage – has become slightly less toxic. Although the Tories are only too happy to try to revive it.Related... Why Is Johnson Apeing Farage On Immigration Rhetoric? I feel like I need to make a declaration of interest here - as I did in the 2015 leader debate. I am a migrant to Briton. I chose to make my life here, making me one of the some 14% of Britons who were born overseas.
When we’re talking about the movement of people, the focus is always on migrants coming into
Britain, as in the discussion of
Brexit it is about people from the other 27 EU countries coming here.
There’s almost no focus on what Britons will lose if freedom of movement within the EU ends.
If that happens, young people will lose the wonderful freedoms and opportunities that their parents had.
I believe very strongly that young people should not have more circumscribed, restricted lives than their parents, and yet the Green Party is the only party in this
election that is putting the benefits of freedom of movement for Britons up front and centre of our campaign.
Sadly, the
Labour manifesto has backtracked from the strong stance taken by its activists at its conference on freedom of movement.
They’ve failed to enter the debate, continued the fudge on this part of Brexit, as they have fudged and fudged again on the broader issue. The Green Party puts its out loudly and proudly: Freedom of movement for Britons is one of the chief benefits of membership of the European Union.
It means Britons of all ages, but particularly the young, are free to jump on a bus or a train (and coach tickets start at £10 or so for large parts of the continent) and explore, find new opportunities, learn, fall in love, live where they want.
That’s something to celebrate, to fight to keep.
Of course we also benefit from people from other EU nations coming here - working in our NHS, teaching languages (an area in which we need a lot of help), bringing their skills, knowledge, culture.
But it’s the opportunities for Britons that are least discussed, and we need to do that far more, to shout it from the rooftops.
And of course we also have to think about the 1.3 million Britons living in other EU countries. They’ve now endured three years of crippling uncertainty and fear. Enough. Staying as a member of EU will ensure they continue to have the freedoms they’ve enjoyed up to now, the chance to work in one – or for many several – EU nations, to live where they choose, with whom they choose.
If we Brexit, and with our hostile environment-impregnated Home Office, with its history of the Windrush scandal and the mismanagement and failure for refugees, it is no wonder EU citizens in the
UK and British citizens in Europe are worried.
Freedom of movement is a broad two-way path, currently a wonderfully rich, branching path across the continent that is open to all of us, with many different vistas, places to stop and enjoy, or settle, people to meet.
If we build large barriers, fences and walls across that path, demand visas or qualifications or job offers, there will some who will always be able to find a way over or around them. People with money, people with connections, will get where they want to be, will live whatever life they want, without limits.
It will be those with less money, fewer connections, from communities already suffering from disadvantage, who will be blocked by those barriers and limited in their opportunities.
Freedom of movement in the EU is an equality issue – it should be available to all British citizens, as it is now, as a result of our membership of the European Union. It’s a top reason to say “Stop Brexit”.
Baroness Natalie Bennett is a Green party peer.Related... Venice Council Chambers Flood After Members Reject Climate Change Amendments Masks, Protests And Car Rationing – Pictures Reveal Shocking Impact Of Delhi's Air Pollution 'We Left The City, Our Child Stopped Coughing': The Families Moving Because Of Air Pollution