(THREAD) Brexit is creeping towards us and I feel frustrated that so little thought has been given to people in families with dual nationalities. If you’re interested to know why Brexit is rubbish for me and my loved ones, please read on (fully expecting to lose followers here!)
1/ Now, before you go any further, I’m fully aware this is pretty low level stuff compared to a lot of other people. But this has brought us a lot of anxiety and sadness over last 3 years none the less...
2/ First a bit of scene setting. I’m 100% British, and was useless at French at school (like most lazy English speakers). But if you’d asked me, I guess I liked the idea of the EU, grew up thinking it was our future, had some nice holidays in Spain and France when I was a kid...
3/ When I left school I thought “Ha ha! Now I’ll NEVER have to learn French again!” Fast forward 10 years - I meet the love of my life drunk in a bowling alley. She’s French. Well played The Universe, well played...
4/ She was living in the UK because she came to study here on the EU funded Erasmus scheme, so the EU is the reason we met. Thanks 🇪🇺! She liked the place and decided to stay. She’s worked here continuously since 2003. She’s super well educated and qualified in a specialist field
5/ (Diversion - This is a win/win for the UK. They didn’t fund her education etc, but collect taxes from her now as an adult. That’s why the British Government used to understand that immigration makes economic sense, in case you didn’t know.) Anyway...
6/ Up till 2016 our different backgrounds didn’t seem an issue. Her family are from northern France, so visiting on the Eurostar felt no different to catching a train to Sheffield. Her sister (cancer specialist) and brother (maths teacher) moved here too, so that was nice
7/ We had 2 kids. I’m a bit of a fusspot and made sure they got dual nationality straight away. My wife thought I was being a bit over dramatic since we were all EU citizens and had the same rights wherever we chose to live in the EU. Then the referendum happened...
8/ My wife cried a lot for 2 days. She loved our tolerant country and felt that over half the population now wanted her gone. Came as a big shock to her. After a few months EU citizens’ rights didn’t seem to be getting resolved (the UK still won’t enshrine them in law)...
9/ What would happen to her if I died? What if she was denied her pension she’d been paying towards since 2003? What if she was denied healthcare? What if some crazy government put up barriers to stop her working, like they do with asylum seekers? So we looked into citizenship...
10/ Bloody hell it’s expensive. So many people have said to me “But you’re married. You’re okay aren’t you?” Nope. There’s a process that takes months and months. First you have to apply for residency, then citizenship. There’s nearly 200 pages of forms, a citizenship test...
11/ AND a frustrating level of information required (every visit in and out the UK for the last 5 years, all your P60s, years of proofs of address etc). By the end of it we reckon we’d spent around £1,700 at least. Had to take a day off work to go to the patronising ceremony too
12/ (Anecdote - when my wife passed her “Life in the UK” test there was a woman crying in the test centre. She thought she was upset. Actually she was happy, she’d passed on the 5th attempt. Costs £50 a pop. £250 just to learn the year Alfred Hitchcock died and other guff)
13/ So now I’m the only one in our family without 2 passports, so I feel like a lemon. I also want to keep my EU citizenship, which I’ve basically had all my life. French citizenship for me? Only £50! Hurrah! Oh... I have to speak fluent (and they mean FLUENT) French....
14/ Hundreds of pounds on French lessons later and I’m still rubbish. Not sure when I’ll ever find the time outside of work to properly nail it, which is unnerving because if my kids move to France one day I probably won’t be able to live there with them
15/ Also (I’m whispering now) this feels like a waste of my time. I worked in Europe for 2 years and got by fine speaking English, gesturing and smiling. I have other things to be doing that could earn me, not cost me, money. I know, I’M A BAD PERSON
16/ Meanwhile, French bankers are pulling their kids out of my brother-in-law’s French school in London. Brexit means around a third of the UK’s banking industry is moving abroad. So my brother-in-law might have to go back to France. That’s sad
17/ And it’s unlikely that when all this is over my French in-laws will be able to live with us if they get sick in their old age. That’s sad. The Pound isn’t doing great since the referendum either, so when we go to France now everything is London prices or more. That’s annoying
18/ Waiting time at the border is likely to go up too. That’s REALLY annoying when you have to sit in a car with 2 small kids. And people who wanted to leave the EU used to grumble about bureaucracy and red tape. Hahahahahahahaha!
19/ Oh yeah, and every now and then I remember the little things, like having to give up my EU health card, or having to pay silly money again to use my iPhone every time I visit the family in France. That’s a kick in the derrière
20/ (Sidetrack - just before Brexit another dual nationality couple we knew moved to London. He’s English, had a sizeable inheritance and was looking to start up a brewery. Brexit happens. Him and his wife think “no thanks” and move back to France. So the UK missed out there)
21/ Anyway, back to ME. 3 years later my family is at least £2,000 down, faces an uncertain future if we want to live in France and are being forced apart from our family, all thanks to Brexit. 100s of 1000s of stories like ours too, most of them worse. We’re the lucky ones
22/ So if you don’t support Brexit, please speak up for dual nationality families. And if you do support Brexit, how would you feel if I’d come along, cost you two grand, wasted LOTS of YOUR time and upset the lives of your family for 3 years? I think you’d be... annoyed. Also...
23/ How confident are you that you (or your child) might not fall in love with someone from abroad one day? I never really thought I would. But if you do, you’ll have to be dealing with all this. Quite possibly more. Consider it a reasonable use of your time, energy and money?
24/ I’ve always kept details of my private life... well, private. But it’s got to the point where I’m so fed up I felt it was worth spreading some awareness. Please pass this on to anyone who might be interested, and share similar stories below if you’d like. 🇬🇧+🇫🇷+🇪🇺=❤️ /END
PS/ Annoyed that I may have slipped up on my banking stat. Looks like I got confused and a third of firms are relocating staff, not a third of staff being relocated. From announcements likely to be around 7,000 people, & £1 trillion of assets have been moved abroad. Still - GULP!
PS2/ Overwhelmed by the responses to this. Much more positive than I was expecting. It’s restored my faith in humanity a bit. When it’s settled down I’ll retweet some of the stories people have been sending me. There are some important ones I think people should see. Thank you!
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