Mixed Nationalities Families in UK and EU Face Difficulties in Mobility Even After 2 Years of Brexit

More specifically, families are pointing out that Brexit has limited their right to migrate as a family, with different restrictions being imposed on British citizens. In addition, European family members aren’t also able to live between the UK and EU, as they are permitted to visit the UK, without a visa, only for a certain period of time, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.

This situation has caused high levels of anxiety among families with ‘mixed status’, as the MIGZEN project studying the long-term impacts of Brexit has revealed. About one-fifth of respondents revealed they were in mixed-status families.

The report by the MIGZEN project focused on “British-European families after Brexit” reveals that since 2016, one-third of respondents of such families or 35 per cent had to change their country or origin in order to be with their family.

Furthermore, family as the main factor for migration was listed by only 19 per cent of respondents, while 17 per cent were driven by work and retirement, respectively.

In conclusion, COVID-19 didn’t really have an impact as strong as Brexit on the migration of such families. Almost three-quarters of respondents, or 73 per cent, said that Brexit had affected their migration plans – with some saying the UK no longer felt welcoming, which led respondents to leave and reunite with their families back in the EU.

“We both had the same rights when moving out of the UK, but given that I was to lose mine in the next couple of years, we moved quickly to the EU. Now I would be a little more reluctant to move without good reason, as I will lose my withdrawal agreement rights,” a British woman living in Denmark said.

This project also revealed that Brexit had led EU citizens to strengthen their attachment to their home countries, while some British citizens are facing other difficulties such as not being eligible to vote in either of the countries – losing the right to vote in the European Parliament, local elections, as well as the right to vote in the UK after being absent in the country for 15 years.

“My husband is British, and I am Swedish. He has lost his EU freedom of movement. If we move to the EU, I will now have to show I can support my husband. If I leave the UK for over five years, I will lose my EU-settled status,” a Swedish woman living in the UK explains.

This situation has caused some marriages to possibly come to an end, as a German woman living in the UK who wants to return to her home country plans to do, as her British husband doesn’t want to go with her, refusing to become a non-EU citizen living in the EU.