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IMMIGRATION

Moving back to UK: Brits in Spain with EU partners warned of immigration problems

Brits living in Spain and other EU countries have been warned of complex and drawn-out administrative processes if they want to move back to the UK with a European partner before the deadline of March 2022.

Published: 16 September 2021 15:41 CEST
Moving back to UK: Brits in Spain with EU partners warned of immigration problems
EU partners warned of problems moving back to UK. Photo: Tatyana Kazakova / Pixabay

Brits who are living in Spain with a Spanish or EU spouse or partner might not have immediate plans to move back to the UK, but new post-Brexit requirements mean that the process is already more complicated, and is set to get more difficult still from next year.

After British media highlighted a series of stories of Brits left stranded when their EU partners could not get the necessary paperwork, campaign groups are urging UK nationals to plan ahead, in case they want to move back in the future.

Jane Golding, chair of the campaign group British in Europe, said: “Families considering a move now need to be aware that the process is time-consuming and complex, and that non-UK family members will first need to apply for an EU Settled Status family permit from outside the UK before the end of March 2022 and only when they have that and move to the UK will they be able to apply for EU pre-settled status.”

Before Brexit kicked in, Brits who had moved to Spain, fell in love, and found a Spanish partner or spouse could move back to the UK with their partner without much hassle, but that has now all changed.

UK nationals can of course move back at any time they chose, but their EU spouses or partners now face lots of extra forms and paperwork to be allowed to live in the UK.

March 2022 deadline

From March 31st, 2022, the EU spouses of UK nationals will have to apply for a full visa and go through a lengthy process, if they wish to move to the UK. This includes fulfilling qualifications around language, skills and having sufficient financial resources. Those who don’t meet the criteria may not be allowed to enter, even though they are married to a Brit.

Settled-status permits needed

But what if you want to move before the March 2022 deadline? Unfortunately, as the UK has already left the EU there is still more paperwork to fill out than before. Your EU partner will first need to apply for an EU Settled Status family permit before they enter the UK, and then once in the UK apply for EU pre-settled status.

At first, this process may appear simple, but UK media has reported many cases where the process has taken months or was rejected for seemingly false reasons. This has left families divided and wondering whether moving back to the UK really was the best idea.

Those considering moving to the UK are therefore advised to leave plenty of time for this, and not rely on doing it last minute before the March deadline.

Jane Golding said: “We are worried that there are many families across the EU who do not understand the implications of stringent immigration rules now applying to UK citizens in the EU”.

“Many of us have older relatives in the UK who may need our care, or we had always planned to retire to the UK to be near family,” she added.

“The grace period given until the end of March 2022 is simply not long enough for families to make decisions to uproot and then arrange to return to the UK. We continue to lobby for a longer grace period.”

You also need to be aware that children without British citizenship will also need to go through the whole immigration process once they reach the age of 18.

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PENSIONS

Spain needs 25 million foreign workers to keep its pensions afloat

As the retirement of baby boomers looms, Spain's ageing population and declining birth rate mean the country will need millions of foreign workers to maintain its public pension pot and reinforce the labour market, the Bank of Spain has warned.

Published: 2 May 2024 09:46 CEST
Spain needs 25 million foreign workers to keep its pensions afloat

A recent study by the Bank of Spain estimates that the country will need up to 25 million more immigrant workers by 2053 in order to combat demographic ageing and maintain the ratio of workers to pensioners in order to support the pension system.

Without an influx of more foreign workers or sudden increase in the birth rate in Spain, something that seems very unlikely, experts fear that the growing disparity between working age people and pensioners could put the public pensions system in danger in the medium to long-term.

Like in many countries in the western world, the Spanish population is ageing, with the percentage of the population over 65 years of age predicted to peak in 2050, when almost one in three will be 65 years old or older.

READ ALSO: Spain’s over 65s exceed 20 percent of the population for the first time

By 2035 around one in four (26.0 percent) of Spaniards are expected to be 65 or older. That figure is currently around one fifth of the population.

Furthermore, this is compounded by falling birth rates. Spain’s birth rate hit a record low in 2023, falling to its lowest level since records began, according to INE data. Spain’s fertility rate is the second lowest in the European Union, with Eurostat figures showing there were just 1.19 births per woman in Spain in 2021, compared with 1.13 in Malta and 1.25 in Italy.

If nothing changes, the current ratio of 3.8 people of working age for every pensioner is predicted to plummet to just 2.1 by 2053, according to INE projections.

Maintaining this ratio seems unlikely moving forward, according to the report’s conclusions, something that would put pressure on pensions without significantly increasing social security contributions among working age people.

READ ALSO: Older and more diverse: What Spain’s population will be like in 50 years

The Bank of Spain report noted that “immigrants have high labour participation rates, generally above those of natives – in 2022, 70 percent and 56.5 percent, respectively.”

In three decades’ time, the INE expects Spain to have 14.8 million pensioners, 18 million Spanish nationals of working age and 12 million foreigners. To maintain the ratio, the Bank of Spain forecasts that the working immigrant population would have to rise by more than 25 million to a total of 37 million overall.

Of course, the arrival of 25 million working-age foreigners seems unlikely, if not impossible. To achieve this, around 1 million net migrants would have to enter Spain each year (discounting departures), a figure unprecedented in recent history. To put the figure in context, between 2002 and 2022 net arrivals in Spain reached five million, roughly five times less than what would be necessary to maintain the balance between workers and pensioners.

READ ALSO: ‘Homologación’ – How Spain is ruining the careers of thousands of qualified foreigners

Putting the economics aside, even if such an increase were statistically plausible, such a surge in net migration would be contentious both politically and socially. And it’s not even certain that increased migrant flows would be able to fill the gap in working age people and bolster public pensions: “The capacity of migratory flows to significantly mitigate the process of population ageing is limited,” the Bank of Spain warned in its report. 

What these projections suggest is that Spain’s public pension system will, in coming decades, likely have to be sustained by the contribution of fewer workers overall. This likely means higher social security payments. “Migratory flows have been very dynamic in recent years, but it does not seem likely that they can avoid the process of population ageing… nor completely resolve the imbalances that could arise in the Spanish labour market in the future,” the report stated.

The problem of ageing will also be transferred to the labour market and the types of jobs filled in the future. Increased migratory flows will soften the effect, but the labour characteristics of migrants coming to Spain may not match the job market in the coming decades. The jobs of the future, increasingly digital, will likely require qualifications that many of the migrants expected to arrive in the coming years do not have.

Consequently, the Bank of Spain suggests that “without significant changes in the nature of migratory flows, it does not seem likely that… [they] can completely resolve the mismatches between labour supply and demand that could occur in the coming years in the Spanish labour market.”

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