Thread by @pmdfoster

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One of the most infuriating #brexit stories I’ve written. And I’ve done a few:

Post-Brexit immigration rules lead to collapse in EU school trips to UK — it’s mad and so sad.

My @ft latest with @AJack Hear me out. /1

on.ft.com/3ceTrFp

@FT @AJack What's going on? Well, simple really. After #Brexit the new immigration rules did two things:

a) insisted all EU kids had passports (not ID cards) to come to UK and

b) non-EU kids in same class needed full visas

That's a *disaster* for EU school trips industry /2

@FT @AJack So it's not impossible to come to UK...but for a budget trip of a 3-5 days, getting everyone new passports...but worse getting your Afghan, Armenian, Turkish classmates a visa (£95, trip to embassy in Paris/Berlin etc) it just makes it impractical/uneconomic /3

@FT @AJack Pre #Brexit kids could use the EU 'travellers list' scheme that enabled those non-EU kids to come to UK as part of a group. Not any more.

All this was forseeable by the way. In June EU industry wrote to @BorisJohnson warning trips could halve /4

theguardian.com/education/2021…

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson Well. The industry says that the data for trips booked next Spring shows that it's worse than than that -- and it's not about #Covid19 since EU schools are booking trips to other destinations...in relatively much greater numbers. /5

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson So what does that mean in practice?

Well teachers like Isabelle Regiani from a middle school in Sarreguemines will go to Calais.

"We’ll have a walk on the beach in Calais and we’ll see the cliffs, and I’ll say ‘see there’s the white cliffs of Dover’.” /6

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson And the data from the industry suggests she is NOT an isolated case.

A survey last month of French schools by Unosel, the international association for language and homestays, found the number of planned trips to the UK had fallen by almost two-thirds/7

unosel.org/resultats-de-l…

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson Eurovoyages, a French company that sent 11,000 students to the UK in 2019, said less than 100 students would go to UK in 2021.

Verdie Open Class, another French operator, that had 800 school groups in 2019 (36,000 students) has 34 scheduled for 2022. None are confirmed. /7

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson Christoph Knobloch, head of CTS Reisen, in Germany, usually runs 1,600 school trips p.a to UK said demand had collapsed.

Why? “If you need to pay for a passport or a visa on top of the costs of the trip, and the teacher has to organise everything, it is a lot of supervision."/8

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson It's mind-numbingly sad as Susan Jones boss of @Linguastay_RP_C points out. “The sadness I feel from a personal and business point of view is nothing compared to the level of sadness I feel for the loss of opportunity for cultural exchange for the UK’s youth.." /9

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson @Linguastay_RP_C Hard to fathom upside of putting up these new barriers to young Europeans. For many these school trips are their chance to get exposure to UK. Wealthier ones are OK, they can afford to come to summer language school, but loads of ordinary kids don't have that luxury/10

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson @Linguastay_RP_C It's also a massive lost opportunity for UK families that host these children -- they earn a few hundred quid, but also their families are exposed to other languages and cultures as are the local schools and communities they serve. /11

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson @Linguastay_RP_C As Jenny Collings, a host in Chester tells me: “It’s exciting, it makes the world feel a bit bigger. It’s given my son a real head start. He can often help with a word if a visitor is struggling. He’s confident because of it and is used to mixing with the children.” /12

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson @Linguastay_RP_C It's a phrase that has stayed with me all week.

"It makes the world feel a bit bigger."

Just a bit. An increment of contact. And if 750,000 kids come every year. That's 750,000 cultural seeds planted.

Why would you not want that? /13

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson @Linguastay_RP_C The Home Office said the Government valued educational exchanges between the UK and "other nations" -- they could even say "Europe" or the "EU" in response to my question. It's part of the 'treat all nations the same' mantra, as if the proximity of Europe means nothing./14

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson @Linguastay_RP_C Then they blamed #COVID19: “It is no surprise that in the middle of a global pandemic, which significantly restricted global travel and where public health is paramount, fewer schools are travelling abroad on school trips." But Covid doesn't explain the data./15.

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson @Linguastay_RP_C Because the same schools that, per industry, are now choosing NOT to go to the UK...ARE choosing to go to other places. Ireland, or the Netherlands, or the Nordics where English is widely spoken...it's not about Coronavirus. It's about the new barriers to entry to UK. /16

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson @Linguastay_RP_C I find, when I tell these kinds of stories to Brexit voters they often say 'well, I didn't vote for *that*'...to keep out school kids, or truck drivers, or au pairs or my colleague in Spain, or my Amazon delivery....and yet that's what they've got. What we've all got /17

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson @Linguastay_RP_C I don't think it's too late to change. We need much better youth mobility (of all kinds) in this super low-ambition trade deal. And I honestly struggle to think that there will be a political price to pay on the door steps for facilitating school trips./18

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson @Linguastay_RP_C It's like -- at the other end of the spectrum -- the Spanish businessman I spoke to last week who was struggling to get even high-skill colleagues a visa to the UK. Now its expensive and cumbersome; it felt like 35 years of investing and collaborating "counted for nothing". /19

@FT @AJack @BorisJohnson @Linguastay_RP_C EU-UK relations will have to evolve. Gravity will have to take over. This is a divorce where we live next door forever. And yes, proximity does mean a lot more EU kids come on school trips to UK than from rest of world.

Surely we should fix this? ENDS