Benidorm, Costa Blanca, Spain. Phillip Capper/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by)
The question of migrants and their right to stay was a key topic of concern during the Brexit campaign. Brexiteers complained of the high number of EU migrants living and working in the United Kingdom. But Brexit may also affect British migrants abroad, especially those who moved to EU countries where they had their rights to stay and work recognised as any other EU migrants (e.g. Spain, Portugal, France or Italy).
British people living in other EU countries took health and social benefits and allowances from both their origin and receiving countries, and in many cases benefitted from the pound-euro exchange rate. In 2009, data of the British Embassy in Madrid showed that there were more than 800,000 Britons living in Spain, most of them unregistered. They were concentrated on the Mediterranean coast, especially in the provinces of Málaga and Alicante, and in some towns one in every two people were British. Bars, pubs, hairdressers, supermarkets, plumbers, electricians, gardeners and many other services are offered in English (and usually by Britons) to the British.
