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‘I’m giving up my UK passport’: Brits in Germany share their heartbreak over Brexit day

As Brexit finally arrives, British citizens in Germany have been sharing their feelings about Brexit – from anger, frustration and sadness to feeling emotionally numb.

Published: 31 January 2020 09:59 CET
Updated: 31 January 2020 16:40 CET
'I'm giving up my UK passport': Brits in Germany share their heartbreak over Brexit day
Rose Newell and her German husband René Newell. Photo courtesy of Rose Newell.

Rose Newell, 33, a Berlin-based copywriter and translator who grew up in Gloucestershire, moved to Germany in 2012.

She feels “emotionally dead” over Brexit “because it’s something that’s been hanging over me for a very long time”.

“I’m not really feeling depressed or distraught or in shock or anything anymore because I’ve known it’s been coming,” she told The Local. “But what I don’t know is if there’s much left to feel.”

Newell’s future in Germany is secure because she acquired German citizenship a year ago. But she is worried about complications she could face if she wants to return to the UK in future with her non-British partner.

READ ALSO:

David Moore, 80, in Germany said he felt “angry and horrible” that the UK was finally leaving the EU. 

Simon in Cologne said he felt “disgusted and sad” and added “it should have never come to this”. Brexit has led Simon to consider giving up his British passport.

Photo: DPA

He said: “It has made me decide not on being both British/German (currently possible), but German instead and I have decided to eventually (on my own timeline) renounce my British “citizenship”, especially as I did not have the right to vote in the referendum. 

“I am repelled by the UK and the past 3.5 hyper stressful years – and this nonsensical process hasn't even really begun yet.”

Rachel Riesner-Marriott, a volunteer with citizens’ rights group British in Germany who has lived in Berlin for nearly eight years, said: “Overall my feelings now Brexit is happening are mostly resignation and sadness.

“It is a terrible tragedy that we are witness to the removal of rights we were born with and discrimination of EU27 citizens in our home country alongside the plethora of problems that have been predicted to now follow. 

“On Friday evening I will be spending the evening celebrating our shared Europeanness and mourning the loss of my rights. This is not a happy day but a day I hope to see reversed in the future.”

'Heartbreaking'

Musa Okwonga, 40, a writer and poet from London, moved to Germany in 2014. He told The Local he was “at peace” with the fact Brexit was happening but added: “I’m angry about it on a wider level”.

“I’m nervous at what it will do to my health insurance costs and my bureaucracy. I’m angry for the people who will never get the opportunity to make a life for themselves in another country like I’ve had.”

Okwonga said he had built up a “far greater community in Germany than I had in the UK in just five years”.

READ ALSO OPINION – if the UK won't stand up for the rights of Britons in Europe then it's up to us

“And people from now on can’t say that,” he said. “And that’s heartbreaking. I’m worried about the next people. It’s not fair that that opportunity has been taken away from people who are now alive or people who are yet to be born. It’s so unfair.”

Suzan French in Germany said she felt “gutted, especially for young Brits”.

Neil Cummins, 53, originally from the UK and now in Berlin, said: “I feel sad, but I feel cheated more than sad. It’s happening so you’ve got to accept that it’s happening. It’s going to damage the country, it’s going to damage people’s jobs, it’s going to damage the future. 

Neil Cummins in Berlin. Photo: Rachel Loxton

“For a Brit living in Germany, we’re a laughing stock. We're like a country putting a wall round our country.”

Many of the readers we talked to said they felt particularly sad about losing their EU right to freedom of movement after the transition period.

Cummins said: “To have it taken away it’s heartbreaking.

READ ALSO: Hiding under the duvet with a bottle of wine: How Brits in Germany will mark Brexit day

“What happens is you don’t know what you’ve got until you’ve lost it. The best part of being a member of the EU and we’ve voluntarily given it up. It’s madness, absolute madness.”

But he has hope for the future.

“The Brits who didn’t get a vote, the kids didn’t get a vote: them kids wanted to stay in the European Union. We are going back in.”

Scottish comedian Chris Davis, 34, who's been in Berlin for over a decade, added that freedom of movement ending is “the worst thing ever”.

REMINDER: What the Withdrawal Agreement means for British citizens in Germany

“It concerns me very much that my British passport isn’t going to allow me the freedom of movement that I once had,” he told The Local.

“I came here 11 years ago on a whim and I've since found a career. Not just a job, a career of which I can sustain myself. And I wouldn’t have been able to do that if it wasn’t for freedom of movement.”

Davis said he'd thought about giving up his British citizenship for a German one.

“I would have no problem giving up my British passport,” he said.

Member comments

  1. I think Brits living in Germany are making a big deal over nothing. They still have freedom of movement inside the EU. No one is going to ask them for their passport. While living in Dresden as Americans no one ever asked to see out passports. We were just like German citizens with freedom of movement. Germans are not going to be hunting you down. Brits are free to take on German citizenship and still remain British. My youngest son applied for and obtained German citizenship on the strength that his mother was born and raised in Germany. He still retains His American citizenship. His wife has obtained American citizenship but retains her Swedish citizenship.Get on with life and stop whining.

  2. BREXIT IS THE SMARTEST MOVE THAT THE BRITISH PEOPLE HAVE MADE SINCE THEY DECLARED WAR ON NAZI GERMANY. THEY ARE A FREE NATION AND NOT GOVERNED BY A BUNCH OF GLOBALISTS IN BRUSSELS. CONGRATULATIONS BRITONS!

  3. While I am commenting let me say that I love Germany and the German people. My wife is German, my children sre half German. My wife and I spent 18 months living in Germany in 2015/16 and we loved it. I have to say that as much as I love Germany I would not want to spend the rest of my life there. Socialism and I just do not get along. There were too many things that rubbed me the wrong way. As an American I can never accept socialism. Those of you living there have no choice. You do not possess the ability to resist the government. You basically do as you are told. You can demonstrate but nothing will change.

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BREXIT

OPINION: Pre-Brexit Brits in Europe should be given EU long-term residency

The EU has drawn up plans to make it easier for non-EU citizens to gain longterm EU residency so they can move more easily around the bloc, but Italy-based citizens' rights campaigner Clarissa Killwick says Brits who moved to the EU before Brexit are already losing out.

Published: 8 December 2023 14:34 CET
OPINION: Pre-Brexit Brits in Europe should be given EU long-term residency

With all the talk about the EU long-term residency permit and the proposed improvements there is no mention that UK citizens who are Withdrawal Agreement “beneficiaries” are currently being left out in the cold.

The European Commission has stated that we can hold multiple statuses including the EU long-term permit (Under a little-known EU law, third-country nationals can in theory acquire EU-wide long-term resident status if they have lived ‘legally’ in an EU country for at least five years) but in reality it is just not happening.

This effectively leaves Brits locked into their host countries while other third country nationals can enjoy some mobility rights. As yet, in Italy, it is literally a question of the computer saying no if someone tries to apply.

The lack of access to the EU long-term permit to pre-Brexit Brits is an EU-wide issue and has been flagged up to the European Commission but progress is very slow.

READ ALSO: EU government settle on rules for how non-EU citizens could move around Europe

My guess is that few UK nationals who already have permanent residency status under the Withdrawal Agreement are even aware of the extra mobility rights they could have with the EU long-term residency permit – or do not even realise they are two different things.

Perhaps there won’t be very large numbers clamouring for it but it is nothing short of discrimination not to make it accessible to British people who’ve built their lives in the EU.

They may have lost their status as EU citizens but nothing has changed concerning the contributions they make, both economically and socially.

An example of how Withdrawal Agreement Brits in Italy are losing out

My son, who has lived almost his whole life here, wanted to study in the Netherlands to improve his employment prospects.

Dutch universities grant home fees rather than international fees to holders of an EU long-term permit. The difference in fees for a Master’s, for example, is an eye-watering €18,000. He went through the application process, collecting the requisite documents, making the payments and waited many months for an appointment at the “questura”, (local immigration office).

On the day, it took some persuading before they agreed he should be able to apply but then the whole thing was stymied because the national computer system would not accept a UK national. I am in no doubt, incidentally, that had he been successful he would have had to hand in his WA  “carta di soggiorno”.

This was back in February 2022 and nothing has budged since then. In the meantime, it is a question of pay up or give up for any students in the same boat as my son. There is, in fact, a very high take up of the EU long-term permit in Italy so my son’s non-EU contemporaries do not face this barrier.

Long-term permit: The EU’s plan to make freedom of movement easier for non- EU nationals 

Completing his studies was stalled by a year until finally his Italian citizenship came through after waiting over 5 years.  I also meet working adults in Italy with the EU long-term permit who use it for work purposes, such as in Belgium and Germany, and for family reunification.  

Withdrawal agreement card should double up as EU long-term residency permit

A statement that Withdrawal Agreement beneficiaries should be able to hold multiple statuses is not that easy to find. You have to scroll quite far down the page on the European Commission’s website to find a link to an explanatory document. It has been languishing there since March 2022 but so far not proved very useful.

It has been pointed out to the Commission that the document needs to be multilingual not just in English and “branded” as an official communication from the Commission so it can be used as a stand-alone. But having an official document you can wave at the immigration authorities is going to get you nowhere if Member State governments haven’t acknowledged that WA beneficiaries can hold multiple statuses and issue clear guidance and make sure systems are modified accordingly.

I can appreciate this is no mean feat in countries where they do not usually allow multiple statuses or, even if they do, issue more than one residency card. Of course, other statuses we should be able to hold are not confined to EU long-term residency, they should include the EU Blue Card, dual nationality, family member of an EU citizen…

Personally, I do think people should be up in arms about this. The UK and EU negotiated an agreement which not only removed our freedom of movement as EU citizens, it also failed to automatically give us equal mobility rights to other third country nationals. We are now neither one thing nor the other.

It would seem the only favour the Withdrawal Agreement did us was we didn’t have to go out and come back in again! Brits who follow us, fortunate enough to get a visa, may well pip us at the post being able to apply for EU long-term residency as clearly defined non-EU citizens.

I have been bringing this issue to the attention of the embassy in Rome, FCDO and the European Commission for three years now. I hope we will see some movement soon.

Finally, there should be no dragging of heels assuming we will all take citizenship of our host countries. Actually, we shouldn’t have to, my son was fortunate, even though it took a long time. Others may not meet the requirements or wish to give up their UK citizenship in countries which do not permit dual nationality.  

Bureaucratic challenges may seem almost insurmountable but why not simply allow our Withdrawal Agreement permanent card to double up as the EU long-term residency permit.

Clarissa Killwick,

Since 2016, Clarissa has been a citizens’ rights campaigner and advocate with the pan-European group, Brexpats – Hear Our Voice.
She is co-founder and co-admin of the FB group in Italy, Beyond Brexit – UK citizens in Italy.

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