to not want to be treated like a bargaining chip?

[VallarMorghulis]

As a EU national who's lived here over 20 years, I am disgusted at the way the UK government is treating me and other like me like bargaining chips.

"Why didn't you apply for British citizenship?", you may ask. Well I don't have a spare £1500 behind the sofa that I could use to do so. Still I am planning to, I will beg and borrow if I need to, and hopefully, other than the bureaucratic hoops I'll have to jump through and the money I'll have to part with, it should be quite easy for me to do so.

However, for many other EU nationals, it's going to be impossible. Since 2015 a requirement to apply for citizenship is for EU nationals to first apply and obtain a permanent residence card. Many do not qualify, regardless of how long they have lived in this country, whether they have a British spouse or British children. For instance, stay at home parents, carers, students. Why? Because no-one told them that they needed a comprehensive health insurance to qualify. Universities even advise students that they don't need health insurance and that they should just register with a GP. The low earning self-employed are another category who do not qualify.

The government has said that they guarantee the right to stay of EU nationals who are lawfully residents in the UK. What does "lawfully" mean? Does that mean that people who do not qualify for permanent residency are not here lawfully? That they might be deported, or even face prison sentences? Some immigration lawyers think so (www.freemovement.org.uk/new-policies-and-forms-for-eu-nationals-show-hardening-home-office-position/). Hopefully
it will not come to this, but the uncertainty is causing much distress.

I am so fed up of being told "you'll be all right". What about my friends who might not be?

Take Patrizia, for instance, who's story is shown in the video below. She's Italian, met and fell in love with her husband, they have 2 children and decided she would be a SAHM. She's been here most of her adult life. And yet, her future is uncertain.

I am not a bargaining chip, no one should be treated this way.

Levie - I'm sorry to hear about your mother. It is particularly awful for older people. However, I do believe there is a human rights issue if only someone with lots of spare cash (à la Gina Miller) would like to address it.

BoboChic Gina Miller doesn't have loads of spare cash. Her action was crowdfunded.

There is no one who cares. So what if a few EU nationals get sent "home"? After all, they are simultaneously in the UK to steal all the jobs and scrounge all the benefits: " Schroeder' s immigrant". And as for all those "citizens of nowhere"? Well fuck them, they must be rich to live there in all that sunshine.
There is no choice, no opposition, no help. Feeling quite down atm. Sorry.

Was it? I didn't realize that. She does have lots of cash, however!

YANBU at all. I'm a SAHM living here with my British DH and our 3 DCs. I have an EU passport. The feeling of being in limbo is deeply unpleasant, especially as MIL voted Leave. (I voted Remain, which I could do as a Commonwealth citizen.)

I've been here 10 years, and worked 6 of those before having children.

I wish May and her government would show some moral fibre and guarantee us the rights we have now.

There is no one who cares.

It very much feels that way. I feel like writing a rude letter to David Cameron to underscore what he has orchestrated.

That bastard, safe with his millions. I don't know who I hate more, Cameron, Boris or Garage, not forgetting Gove

Farage. Autocorrect fail obvs

What is really worrying is that so few people seem to be aware of what's at stake. Lots of people who I would consider to be reasonably well-informed simply don't believe me when I tell them about my Mum. They just don't think that this country would behave in such an unreasonable or inhumane way. But having looked into things in a bit more detail, I'm afraid to say that I don't feel reassured. And the government's continued refusal to give any clarity is an utter utter disgrace.

I'm going along to the event on Monday. I really hope that it gets the message out there that it's completely unacceptable to treat real people with real lives and real families as 'negotiating capital'.

They are all absolutely repulsive.

"What is really worrying is that so few people seem to be aware of what's at stake."

When I look at how the country has been "managed" in the past few decades and the absolutely inhumane policies that people put up with, nothing really surprises me any more. People just don't understand the incredible deep-seated incompetence of successive governments.

Just found out about this https://remaineraction.eu/2017/02/02/eu-citizens-resident-in-the-uk-right-to-stay-bill-second-reading-24-03-17/]], a private member's bill to guarantee EU citizens' rights, something to get behind?

£1500?! I will stop complaining about my £120 fee plus 2 x £75 exams in Denmark then.

I think that any new rules should apply to newcomers. Those who are already here should be covered by the old rules.

www.opendemocracy.net/uk/peter-geoghegan-adam-ramsay/you-aren-t-allowed-to-know-who-paid-for-key-leave-campaign-adverts?utm_source=civimail&utm_campaign=DUP_38D&utm_medium=email

I was on the first thread as well.

In practice if this happens, I'd have to move back to my home country with our son and leave DP behind as he doesn't speak the language and the chances he'll get a job over there like this are nil.

My PIL, who aren't necessarily my favourite people, have said they voted Remain exactly because they didn't want their GS to grow up abroad, I thought that is sweet, but not really the main concern. Should probably tell them they were right, but I don't want to make MIL worry herself sick!

Cheshire Yes this could have the potential to split hundreds of thousands of families. Of course the government have been doing that to other nationalities for years - I believe Theresa May started it in her previous post. Makes you wonder what sort of values she was brought up with as the daughter of a vicar (marriage, family etc).

OhToBlazesWithElvira - yes, I have rather wondered how TM squares her vicarage upbringing Church going persona with her policies towards her fellow humans.

www.facebook.com/the3million/videos/1269895459712846/

Our situation is hardly unique and as someone pointed out on the previous thread, why should the other EU countries welcome the various Brits with open arms. Not just those that already live abroad, but those like my DP who would quite like to see his son grow up.

I do remember a few posters mentioning this has been happening already to non EU immigrants and was wondering if anyone has a source for that?

Annoyingly, my DP is one of those that think it can't possibly happen...

Yes CheshireCat it's happened to non-EEA immigrants, which why it's worrying. I'll see if I can find some examples.

In the meantime here is the second video produced by The3Million to highlight the problem. I linked it upthread already but in my haste didn't do it properly...

Some links for you CheshireCat
ukhumanrightsblog.com/2016/06/13/families-separated-for-immigration-purposes/

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/strict-immigration-rules-drive-families-apart-by-separating-british-children-from-their-parents-10492226.html

www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/35605478/how-one-family-from-syria-say-they-were-separated-by-uk-immigration-rules

YANBU. I work at a university and know so many EU nationals (about 1/3 of the department), and staff who are married to EU nationals. They have homes and families and children over here. They've built lives here, contribute economically, but also contribute to the life of uni and the community. Thanks to our international staff (and also our international students) our home students learn to think about cultural diversity, and work in international teams. Our EU staff are a hugely important part of our team and it's horrendous that they, and you, are being treated this way.

It is so worrying. My husband is an EU citizen. He has been here since he was 2 months old. He's has paid tax here all his working life and as a higher earner is a huge net contributor to the Treasury. The uncertainty as to whether he could be told to fuck off is causing us a lot of stress. It probably will be fine in the end and there will be some negotiated solution that covers EU citizens here and UK citizens there but until that is on the statute books there is a big question mark hanging over our family life.

I think it will probably be ok for workers- we keep hearing about the contribution to the economy made by EU employees. But I don't hear anything remotely reassuring about non-workers or all the people, especially SAH parents, who have belatedly discovered that they are not strictly 100% regular because they didn't know they were supposed to have private health insurance if they weren't working.

I totally agree. It is disgusting. DH has lived in the UK for 13 years and I am disgusting at some of the comments made to him since June. He has been 'granted' permanent residency but it was a massive hassle that we shouldn't have been subjected to, any for many others as you say it is impossible to get the documentation confirming their rights, including a number of our friends.

We would like to get citizenship for my husband to secure ourselves, and he easily meets all of the requirements, but it is absurd that they are now charging £1,500, using the uncertainty they have created for families like ours as an opportunity to profit. In most other EU countries the charge for the citizenship process is only levied to cover the administration costs, typically between €50 and €100. My last letter to my MP about all of these issues, sent two months ago, has been completely ignored.

I am so ashamed of what the UK has become and disgusted by the attitudes of both politicians and many UK citizens. We have just had our first child and I don't want him to grow up in this country and be subjected to the same xenophobia my husband is now receiving, so we are planning to emigrate and raise our family in my husband's country instead. We are also both relatively high earners and I refuse on principle to keep contributing our taxes into the UK system and all it now represents.