If you’re leaving the U.K. because of Brexit where are you going?

[OrangeSamphire]

We’re seriously thinking about our options of where to live given the current situation in the U.K.

We both work in service industries which would be transferable. We don’t speak any other languages to a business standard though. One of our children is disabled.

I have Canadian citizenship but Canada just doesn’t excite me one bit. And the schooling prospects for my disabled child would be dire.

We have family in USA, Canada and France.

If you’ve left, or are leaving, where to and why?

If brexit happened tonight at midnight you woudlnt notice a single change. Life is going to be exactly the same apart from the strength of the pound and a few procedures.

Chill out. I voted remain but, even I know if we left it isn't a big drama.

What's wrong with the schooling prospects for your disabled child in Canada? It would be my first choice.

I am Dutch. Dh is British. Our children are thus both. Our children are 19 and 16. We will be hanging on here until youngest has finished A levels which will coincide with eldest finishing uni. Then we will leave.
I spent half my childhood living in Germany.
We are looking at The Netherlands, Germany, and possibly France.

Life has already changed for us DinkyDolphin our business has suffered due to the weak pound and the uncertainty, also my European husband who has been here more than 25 years, feels unwanted. He employs many people, pays a bloody fortune in personal and corporation tax and has paid in tenfold what he has taken out of this country.
I don’t think we’ll go yet, our children are at a key point in schooling and I worry about the disruption for them.
I think if you have Canadian options Op that’s definitely worth looking into further.
Friends have left and moved to Italy they seem very happy.

honestly unfortunately the type of schooling he has here just isn’t available there. He attends a school that is specifically designed for children with severe physical disability, sensory impairments and medical instability. The opportunities he has there are so wonderful. I expect it would be hard to replicate that anywhere, but I know already that the area of Canada I am from has nothing like it.

It would have to get pretty dire here before we’d leave all that behind. But we are so bored of it all and not enjoying the general atmosphere.

We might leave, would prefer not to but it depends on the deal we get ( or not). We are unusual in that for DH to practise some of his legal speciality he currently had to be resident in an EU member state. So leaving the EU without a deal might make a very real difference to us. We'd go to Holland I would think. Possibly Ireland. I'd commute back here to work a week a month and might be able to pick up work on either of those places. Kids are older, so would attend a British school in Holland or regular Irish school. I'm pretty relaxed about it, Holland and Ireland are both nice places and we could make a home for ourselves in either.

We’re looking at Canada (sorry OP, not much help to you), but DH is also keen on New Zealand. Can’t do America because DH would have to re-do all of his professional qualifications to get an accreditation that was recognised there- I wouldn’t want to live in America anyway.

I’d love to live in Italy, but neither of us speak the language well enough to be employable.

SheRa, I am with your husband - it is the unwanted feeling.

I have been here for 28 years. I have worked, paid taxes, NI etc. Never claimed benefits apart from the child benefit everyone receives.
I have worked in marketing and business. I am now a special needs teaching assistant.
I have bought a house, bought goods and services.
I have not been a drain on society.

Yet, I feel unwanted. Surplus to requirements, Not deemed worthy.

And that is a horrible feeling. It has left me desperately sad and disillusioned in the country I adopted and loved as my own.

dinkydolphin, as soon as Austerity hit, all extra curricular services, for disabled children were cut. SS criteria were highered for help/support. Because of this Charity providers also had to get tougher. The bedroom tax also had an effect.

We've had benefit changes, were the disabled are worse off.

Changes to the education system and post 16 for young people with disabilities. So they don't have their needs met and funding is cut.

Things are only going to get worse.

I have lots of relatives who are UK/French and they are now planning on staying in France.

hippo I'm Dutch too, married to a Brit. We moved to the NL 5 1/2 years ago after I'd been in the UK for almost a decade. If he hadn't move away already, we probably would do so now too. I worked the entire time I was there, paid taxes, etc.

We are leaving. I’m from Belgium, came her when I was five. My parents and sister are back there now. DH is French Canadian. He came to the UK as a student when he was 21. DT’s have Canadian passports and are at UK unis.

DH is a doctor so wouldn’t be able to practice outside of the UK without requalifing which at 50 he doesn’t want to do. I’m an accountant working for an international company so could work anywhere. We have a property business with an agent managing it so could live off the income or sell it. We can’t decide where to move to. I’d like Belgium as my family are there but DH is keener on the US as his family are nearby in Canada and his sister lives in the US. I’ve refused to live in the US but the Caymans is looking a strong contender.

DH is Australian and DCs have dual nationality so our natural choice would be there. We will wait it out and see in 18/24 months or so how things are and then make our decision.

My mother is a from a scandinavian country and has been here since the 1960s - she is incredibly pissed off with everything at the moment. But it is not realistic for her to move back - all her kids and grandkids are here. My siblings and I could get a passport from my mother's birth country but we need to brush up our language skills considerably first! However not sure how that would help my kids, unless we moved there asap.

Birds you are right, I am also concerned about DS’s future here. While his school is amazing and we have been able to get help to adapt our home, future prospects look fragile if our economy takes the expected tumble and public spending shrinks further.

I really really don’t want to go to Canada. It’s so far from family here and in France. But my children are entitled to citizenship because I was born there and have citizenship. So maybe I should consider applying for their Canadian passports...

I’d rather go to France but who knows if we’d be allowed in by then.

Interesting that no one has said USA. I’m not surprised really. My dad lives there and is, I think, a citizen. So it might be an option. But healthcare for DS would cripple us financially I think. Plus, Trump...

Unfortunately things are going to get very uncomfortable for foreigners over the next few years.

Racism is now acceptable and it will only get worse.

Irish people might be just about be OK, but anybody else living here, who has come from another country, will be in for a huge change.

Regardless of legality, if you're foreign, you won't be getting that job, or that rental property, or much of anything. It's shit, and so unfair.

If I were from the continent, I would be planning now how to get out and putting contingency plans in place for when I lose my job. Unfortunately job losses will be inevitable, any vacancy will be given to British people and all promotions and redeployment opportunities also.

OP, can't help with where you should go, but please plan ahead, the future isn't going to be pleasant for foreigners.

Dinky - you must be living on a different planet. Watch the news and read the papers, there will be massive changes if/when the UK leaves. Supply chain and employers moving their business outside the UK is going to have a horrendous impact on everyone.

I’m also a British citizen, not just Canadian, as my family is actually English. So I have no concerns about being made to feel unwelcome here for that reason. But I don’t like what’s happening to the U.K.

Although we have a Polish surname, so who knows! Our next but one neighbours have referred to us as ‘the foreigners’ ever since we moved into our village six years ago.

It’s so sad.

I agree Parker and I also think there could be massive changes even if we don’t leave. Our representative democracy is broken and people are pissed off. It’s a hostile and hopeless environment that’s creeping up around us.

I would not move to France with a disabled child. I'm not saying there isn't the help, but from people I know it is quite difficult to access.

dinkydolphin as for your comment about Brexit making no noticeable difference, whether we have to leave or not it already has made a difference to us. Two close friends and their families have left to go back to their home country, with their British partner and kids. My brother won't be moving back from Holland with his Romanian wife. Yes, we can visit, but my kids really miss their friends and baby cousin. That's one fewer doctor, two fewer teachers, a journalist and one fewer business owner and an oil exec no longer working and paying taxes in this country.

pfwow I work with children with disabilities and have heard similar from French families.

We are going to see. DH's sector needs to have head office in an eu country to be able to trade in Europe. For the past couple of years they've not been rehiring when someone leaves and opening a job in their Maltese or Swedish office so we reckon they will create those offices as their head office so they would be possibilities. I speak 5 languages and DH speaks 3. DH is from a European country where I wouldn't be able to get dual nationality but because I am married and am the mother of one of their nationals, I would easily (and for free) get leave to remain and keep all my European privileges. Realistically, the world is our oyster and we will see what happens

I’m envious cheesecake. I wish the world was our oyster. With DS it makes it difficult to move anywhere.

Your language skills will stand you in good stead. Five languages, that’s so impressive.

We have lived in Spain for the last 10 years. This year we're taking nationality. We wouldn't have bothered before but brexit has confirmed to us that we never want to live in the UK again, and we love it here. The healthcare and education is fantastic, and we'll be in the EU, so it's a no brainer for us.

A lot of romanticism here about the state of other EU countries. Well worth while doing your homework before jumping ship.

Italy - beautiful country but financially insecure and an extreme right wing government in place.
France - unstable and divided - gilets jaunes anyone? Le Pen waiting in the wings.
Spain - constitutional crisis, high unemployment, real estate bubble
Belgium - profoundly divided country. Powerful extreme right movement in the Vlaams Blok. How long will it remaain united?
Greece - financial desert.
Austria - right wing extremists in the government.
Most of Eastern Europe facing growth in extreme right, anti immigration, nationalist vote.
Scandinavia - growing right wing movements fuelled by impact of immigration on poorer communities.
Which leaves Germany, Netherlands etc still relatively financially secure and politically stable though the AfD is getting 20% of the vote...which does not augur well.

So don’t automatically assume that Brits, or returning ex pats will be welcomed with open arms.

If brexit happened tonight at midnight you woudlnt notice a single change. Life is going to be exactly the same apart from the strength of the pound and a few procedures.

What a dopey comment. As pps have said, an imminently Brexit is already making a huge difference to some of us. Quite apart from being an EU citizen who has been a taxpayer in the UK for more than 20 years, research funding in academia has been thrown into total disarray by the prospect of leaving the EU no one in Europe wants a partner institution in the UK at the moment, for obvious reasons and scholar mobility is facing huge problems.