The number of British nationals emigrating  to other EU countries has risen by 30% since the Brexit referendum, with half making their decision to leave in the first three months after the vote, research has found.  (Bravo. Ed.)

Analysis of data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Eurostat shows that migration from Britain to EU states averaged 56,832 people a year in 2008-15, growing to 73,642 a year in 2016-18.

The study also shows a 500% increase in those who made the move and then took up citizenship in an EU state. Germany saw a 2,000% rise, with 31,600 Britons naturalising there since the referendum.  Cited as reasons for moving are reduced levels of consideration and level-headedness in decision-making in the UK. and more impulsiveness, spontaneity and risk-taking”.  

While the EU withdrawal agreement enshrines the residency, work and social rights of EU citizens in the UK and Britons in the rest of the bloc, it failed to guarantee the free movement rights of British migrants, restricting future employment and residency prospects in other member states.

Co-author Daniel Tetlow said that “Brexit was by far the most dominant driver of migration decisions since 2016”. The jump in citizenship was “further evidence that an increasing number are making migration decisions to protect themselves from some of the most negative effects of Brexit on their lives”, the report said.

The key loss for British nationals is the freedom to move countries within the EU or to work across borders. This does not apply to EU nationals in the UK who retain free movement rights beyond Brexit courtesy of their EU member state citizenship.It means that unless British nationals take out citizenship in their host country, they can no longer work in or offer a service to another EU member state, impacting professions including accounting, law, architecture, translation and health.

More than 21,000 British nationals emigrated to Spain between 2016 and 2018.  11,00 went to Germany, 10,000 to France, 6000 to Ireland and 5000 to the Netherlands. ( Source: Guardian graphic. Source: Berlin Social Science Center.)

The second most popular country for British nationals was France, which does not require registration of EU migrants. Between 2008 and 2015 the number of registrations was just over 500 a year. After the referendum this rose tenfold with 5,000 registrations over the following two years.

In Germany, 14,600 Britons had dual nationality in 2019 compared to 622 in 2015. A total of 31,600 applied and received German citizenship in the three years after the referendum (2016 to 2019) with another 15,000 German passports expected for 2020. Overall half the estimated 120,000 Britons in Germany are expected to have dual citizenship by the end of this year.

In 2019, more Brits took German citizenship  than Poles, Romanians, Iraqis or Syrians.  Interviews with migrants in Germany for the study found those who migrated considered it a “big risk” but were prepared to make the trade-off to secure future residency and access across 27 countries.  (Lisa O’Carroll, 4 Aug 2020. Guardian).

My comment: Were I younger I think (my wife willing) that I would move to France.  Britain and the US (especially the US) seem to be blundering into a re- run of German, Italian and Spanish politics of the 1930s.  No one knows any history, and thus they blunder into a modern fascism without a clue what they are doing.