Flickr/ EU Exposed. Some rights reserved.2015 has been an anxious year for EU-based UK emigrants: especially those of us on the left. Long used to viewing calls for a Brexit as right-wing policy (or posturing), left-wing voters have mixed feelings about the Labour leadership election of Eurosceptic Jeremy Corbyn. On the one hand, there is the potential rejuvenation of a party that, prior to the election, had appeared to be losing both direction and support. On the other hand, none of us want Britain to leave the EU, especially as UK emigrants are uniquely placed to see how EU membership benefits our adopted countries. But are we right to worry about Corbyn’s attitude to the EU? Or could a Eurosceptic Labour leader actually be exactly what EU-based UK emigrants need?
The idea that Britain may leave the EU isn’t a new one to UK emigrants but we have been protected from the extent of the general public’s Euroscepticism. Opposition to Britain's EU membership has oscillated between 30% and 55% of voters since 2010 with the largest poll in 2014 showing 41% against, 41% for, and 18% undecided. Among UK emigrants, opposition to EU membership is— understandably— much lower. (Although support for a Brexit would probably rise if there was confirmation that it would not impact UK emigrant lives and jobs.) Being an economic immigrant makes it very easy to shut down anti-EU, anti-immigration talk within our UK communities. Even the most committed Eurosceptic struggles to complain about Polish and Hungarian workers when their own child, sibling or friend has become an EU economic immigrant.
Unfortunately this doesn’t actually change anyone’s attitude to the EU, just the way they choose to express themselves and many UK emigrants were surprised by the popularity of anti-EU rhetoric during the May 2015 election. This slight removal from other UK voters has allowed UK emigrants to dismiss Euroscepticism as a right-wing, fringe movement or, at its most powerful, as a favoured Tory negotiation tactic. There was idle speculation about what might happen if Britain did leave the EU; would we all need to get visas? Would there be incentives to adopt EU citizenship? But, for the most part, planning for a Brexit was up there with planning for a zombie attack: only the most paranoid were taking it seriously.
