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Article 50: The fight against Brexit starts now, say Brits in France

With the UK government triggering Article 50 on Wednesday to begin its divorce from the EU, many say it’s time for the anti-Brexit brigade to give up the fight. But many pro-EU Brits in France say their battle is only just beginning.

Published: 29 March 2017 23:14 CEST

Article 50: The fight against Brexit starts now, say Brits in France

Photo: AFP

After the referendum vote, the shock, the recriminations, the bitter arguments and accusations, the high court rulings and the failed amendments in parliament, the UK finally began its divorce proceedings from the EU on Wednesday.

The British Prime Minister Theresa May sent Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council official notice of the UK’s desire to take a step into the unknown by leaving the European Union, which it joined back in 1973.

For many, including Theresa May herself the momentous triggering of Article 50 should act as a signal for all those others who railed against the referendum result to lay down their arms and “unite” on the arduous journey that lies ahead.

But many Brits in France, who along with EU citizens living in the UK, stand the most to lose if Brexit negotiations turn sour, rejected her plea saying the fight is only just beginning.

Their message on Wednesday was “It's not over yet”.

“Today marks the end of the ‘phoney war’ and the beginning of a whole new Battle of Britain,” said Toulouse-based Ian Hayes-Fry from the Remain in France Together online community, that was set up after Brexit to fight for the rights of Brits in France.

Kalba Meadows, who runs the group and lives in the Ariege department of south west France added: “Today is the beginning and not the end. This is where the real fight starts. And now we have something to concrete to fight against.”

Remain in France Together is just one of several pressure groups that represents the hundreds of thousands of Britain living across the EU that have united to fight their corner since last June's referendum.

The group counts some 5,500 members and its chief aim, whatever Theresa May might say, is to prevent Brexit from happening.

Many believe now that Article 50 has been triggered and the fraught negotiations begin it will become clear that the UK is best served by remaining in the EU.

“I will never give up the fight,” said Sandra Jones. “This catastrophic decision by the governing party to go ahead with leaving the EU when there are no known benefits to the UK makes me very angry and anxious for the future.”

Groups representing British citizens living in Europe are not ready to rely on Theresa May and the UK government to deliver the best deal to protect their rights and have vowed to step up their campaigning.

“This is not the time to give up the fight against Brexit,” Christopher Chantrey, chairman of the British Community Committee of France told The Local.

“All we are hearing is the same old promises and pipe dreams. It is becoming clearer and clearer that no deal would be far worse than a bad deal – but nobody in government will say so. The struggle continues.

“British in Europe www.britishineurope.org, the coalition of a dozen or so UK citizens' groups in Europe is stepping up its lobbying efforts in London, Brussels and key member state capital cities.”

This week representatives of British in Europe met with the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier to press their case that the UK and Brussels must resolve the rights of Brits living in the EU and European citizens living in Britain.

So far the UK has withstood pressure to show the lead by guaranteeing the rights of those EU nationals living in Britain before negotiations began. Barnier suggested the limbo may go on until late 2018, by which time a deal will hopefully have been struck.

Other acts of resistance by Bremainers living in France and throughout the EU include signing numerous petitions including a vote of no confidence in Theresa May because of her handling of Brexit and one on the site Change.org titled Article 50 not in my name.

Letters have been written to Theresa May demanding that she guarantee health rights for British citizens abroad as well as pension uprating, which would prevent them from being frozens as they are in some for British nationals living in some countries.

“We can't stop voicing our opinions,” said Susan King-Bradshaw. “So much depends on what deals are going to be made such as our rights to stay in a country which we legally moved to. How can we become illegals when we have done nothing wrong. I will be fighting for the rights of my family, my children, two of whom were born in France.”

Brits in the EU are also being asked to write personally to Donald Tusk to give him notice of their dissent against Article 50.

The standard letter reads: “As a British national and citizen of the EU, I hereby notify the Council of my dissent from and objections to this act of the British government. For the avoidance of doubt, I do not consent to being deprived of my European Citizenship.”

“Contrary to its claim, the British government does not have a democratic mandate from the people of the UK to leave the EU,” the letter to Tusk reads.

One of the many bones of contention opponents of Brexit have with Britain leaving the EU is that they believe the referendum was not democratic, because many long term expats were denied the vote and they also claim voters were misinformed and lied to, pointing to the famous claim by Brexiteers that the UK would save £350 million by leaving the EU could then be given to the NHS.

“Now the Brexiteers will start to find out that this is not going to be easy and the impact of any type of Brexit will negatively affect them. That the lies told to win their votes will be exposed,” said Emily Trefier from RIFT.

So while the Daily Mail and Brexiteers may have been celebrating “Freedom” on Wednesday as though the battle had been won, peace is unlikely to be declared anytime soon.

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'I feel exiled': How Brits in Europe are locked abroad with foreign partners

Europe is home to hundreds of thousands of British nationals, many of whom have foreign partners and children. But if they want to move to the UK to live and work it will soon become more difficult.

When it comes to getting a partner visa, the UK has some of the strictest rules in Europe. In addition to hefty fees and a healthcare surcharge, the Home Office requires British citizens and long-term residents who bring their foreign partner to the UK to have a minimum income showing they can support them without relying on the social security system.

The minimum income up until now was set at £18,600 (€21,700), or £22,400 (€26,100) if the couple had one child, plus another £2,400 (€2,800) for each other child.

But these income requirements will rise steeply from April 11th 2024.

How it works: What Brits in Europe should know about UK’s new minimum income rules

From this date the minimum a British national or long-term resident will need to earn if they want to return home will increase to £29,000 (€33,800) and up to £38,000 (€44,313) by spring 2025, although there will no longer be an additional amount for accompanying children.

Alternatively, families need to prove they have at least £62,500 (€72,884) in cash, which from 11 April will increase to £88,500 (€103,207).

‘Family life has been destroyed’

To put this in context the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford suggests that around 50 percent of UK employees earn less than the £29,000 threshold and 70 percent less than £38,700. The Observatory also says that while the number of people affected by the policy is small compared to the overall UK immigration (family visas represent 5 percent of all entry visas), the impacts on concerned families can be “very significant”.

The Migration Observatory notes that other European countries apply income thresholds to sponsor foreign partners. Spain, for instance, requires sponsors to have an annual income equal to the social security salary. In Denmark, sponsors must not have claimed social benefits in the three years before the application. But in Spain and the US, the partner’s foreign income also counts towards the threshold.

So what does this mean for mixed British and international families living in Europe who might want or even need to return to the UK to live?

Campaigners have complained that many Britons with foreign partners have simply been “locked abroad” or families have been separated while they try to meet the minimum income or savings requirement.

Reunite Families UK, a non-profit organisation supporting people affected by the UK spouse visa rules, says this policy causes distress, especially for children.

Some 65 percent of respondents in research carried out by the group said that their child received a diagnosis of a mental health condition due to the separation of their parents.

“Since its introduction, this policy has destroyed the family life of countless people and children,” Matteo Besana, Advocacy and Campaigns Manager at Reunite Families UK said.

“Women have been forced to become single parents to their children and live away from their partner and the father of their children only because they didn’t meet the threshold.

“As shown by our research on the mental health impact of the policy, these are scars that, particularly for children, will be carried for the rest of their lives,” Besana said.

The people most likely to be affected are women, who tend to earn less or not work because they took on caring responsibilities. Also heavily impacted are people under 30 and over 50 years of age, people living outside London and the Southeast of England where wages are higher, and those belonging to specific ethnicities, according to the Migration Observatory.

The Local spoke to two British women, in Italy and Sweden, struggling to return to the UK with their families because of these rules.

More savings needed

Sarah Douglas, who has been living in Italy since 2007, was planning to return to Scotland with her Italian husband and three children.

“It was always our long-term goal to move back to the UK after we had our children and once we’d have saved enough to buy a home in the UK,” she said.

“In hindsight, we should have gone after the Brexit referendum, but in the beginning it wasn’t clear what the final deal would be and I naively assumed that situations like mine would be taken into account and we would have the right to return… Once it did become clear, we were in the middle of the pandemic and it wasn’t the time to move,” she said.

Having stayed home to take care of the children, Sarah will find it hard to land a job near her family in Scotland that meets the minimum income required to sponsor a foreign partner for a UK visa.

Her husband, a computer programmer, has been trying to get an employment visa, “but most of them state that you must already have permission to work in the UK,” Sarah says. And applying for British citizenship is not an option for a non-UK resident spouse.

‘People need to be aware’

Sarah and her husband are trying to save as much as they can, an alternative to the income requirement, but the amount they need is rising to almost £90,000, meaning it may be a long time before they have enough to move home.

While the aim of the UK’s policy is to ensure families moving to the UK are not a burden on the taxpayer, the reality is that people arriving on a family visa are not able to claim any benefits from the UK government.

“They should judge the overall financial viability of the family unit, rather than just the earning potential of the sponsoring partner,” Sarah says.

“We could live well with my husband’s salary and he could work remotely. We are stable and financially secure, but because I don’t earn any money, they say we are not able to support ourselves.”

Sarah says that most of the British public are unaware of the minimum income requirement.

“People think if you are married, your husband is allowed to come to the UK, but when I say no, it doesn’t work like that, they are really surprised. A lot of people are not aware of how this could affect them,” she said.

Looking for a job from abroad

Another British women who lives in Sweden with her South African husband and two children and plans to move to the UK told The Local how the minimum income requirement had put them in a “precarious and stressful situation”.

The woman, who preferred to remain anonymous said: “After having the two children, I was very fortunate to find a research position and do my PhD, which is a salaried position in Scandinavia, and now that I finished, we are looking to leave.

“But I need a job in the UK to sponsor my husband, and as a new graduate with limited work experience, it is not easy. It is even more difficult when you are not in the country and I missed out on opportunities because they wanted an immediate start. I really don’t want to move without my whole family,” she said.

She says the UK’s policy is “gendered and geographically discriminatory” because it makes life harder for women and also harder for anyone who is planning to move to a part of the country that isn’t in London, where salaries are higher.

“I feel exiled from my country and separated from my family there,” she said.

Her husband, she argues, has his own company and could continue working remotely from the UK, earning well above the requirement. He would also pay taxes and national insurance while having to pay the healthcare surcharge, a form of double taxation, she argues. But that would not entitle him to a visa.

“Our house is on the market now. We have booked removal companies for the 6th of June. The dog is booked for his transport. I just think this policy is so out of touch with the modern world,” she said.

Reunite Families UK has called on the government to recognise the right for British or settled citizens to bring their close family members to the UK and scrap the minimum income requirement. Alternatively, the group says the rules should take into consideration the earning potential of both partners and consider “the best interests of children”.

A petition on the UK parliament website asks the government to reconsider the minimum income policy. If it reaches 100,000 signatures, it will have to be debated in parliament.

This article has been produced by Europe Street news.

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