To ask if you realise au-pairs are seriously under threat after Brexit?

[Dontblameitontheboogie]

On another thread discussing a potential au-pair who would be starting this summer, I was struck that not a single poster pointed out that it’s far from certain au-pairs will be able to arrive or even stay after 29 March!?!

I thought this deserved its own thread, and in AIBU rather than the “Brexit” echo chamber. People may not even realise they could be affected.

Even in a “Deal” scenario, au-pair status isn’t guaranteed, as far as I know. They won’t qualify for pre-settled status, as they’re here temporarily and won’t be able to provide proof of ordinary residence. So technically they could be here illegally from 29 March. Access to health care would be a worry, as would re-entering the UK after trips home - or getting here in the first place.

The current au pair scheme is an EU-wide arrangement, that allows young EU nationals to temporarily live in another EU country without exercising Treaty rights. Some countries, like France or Germany extend the scheme to au-pairs from outside the EU too, but the U.K. doesn’t.

In case of a no deal Brexit, the Immigration Bill that was passed last Monday means that EU citizens wishing to come here must have a job offer worth at least £30,000k. Some exceptions I believe, such as nurses and doctors, but I haven’t seen any mention of au pairs anywhere.

Check out www.saveaupairs.uk for more info.

Where I am, six people in a two-bed flat (two families sharing) is pretty normal, for example.

My household earns too much for childcare tax credits and we kind of have a spare cupboard room that a small bed would fit in, though DH wfh in there at the moment so I guess we'd have to figure something else out. Given that a childminder would cost us more than an au pair for wraparound care, do the people who think that au pairs are a luxury but childminders aren't also think the same would be true in our situation if we had a CM? I'm interested. Not used to thinking of the cheaper choice as the luxury!

Your spare room is a luxury, whether or not you use it to host an au pair.

(I don't really understand the defensiveness here around the concept of luxuries - I'm sure most of us have a few.)

But you don't need additional space in your house to accommodate them ...that's the luxury bit!

back to the real world, there was a thread showing photo of someone's box room with a triple bunk bed! to fit 3 of her children, and have space for the au-pair in the other room.

so, how the other halves live hey!

There may be a flood of high quality trained UK childcare professionals (not that au pairs are not qualified and quality, before all the usual lazy racism attacks come my way.) who want to give up making fat profits for others in nurseries and become self employed as nannies ect. I'm sure some of them will be capable of using second language and imparting a cultural experience to DCs, thing is you'll have to pay them properly, rather than using homesick underpaid teens as skivvies to make you feel superior.

Next come the 'I can't pay mores!' Childcare, like food used always be extortionate, just something we will have to and should have adapted too before now. If there's a mass exodus of women from the work force, maybe the gov. will see that the answer is to increase lower end wages.

I was an au pair in Europe before the EU existed.
Also, not all au pairs are European/from the EU.
We had Slovak and Polish au pairs before Slovakia and Poland joined the EU. I know Australian and Canadian au pairs.

As I've said before, before the EU au pairs came here, and British au pairs went to Europe to be au pairs under a specific reciprocal visa scheme which no longer exists. I presume Slovakia and Poland had the same deal.

Australian and Canadian au pairs currently are able to come here under a specific scheme - the tier 5 youth mobility scheme - which only covers a very limited number of countries. I imagine in time this can be expanded to cover European countries but it won't be immediate and could take a long time.

Your spare room is a luxury, whether or not you use it to host an au pair.

Having a spare room might be a luxury, but it's not quite the same as finding a room to fit an au-pair. Not sure why posters picture a huge house with some private studio flat to host an au-pair, when the reality is families squeezing things around to give a bedroom to the only childcare that allows them to work.

Not sure if that was to me katherina, but I didn't ask if our 2.5 bedroom home is a luxury. I wanted to know if people think choosing a childminder, which would be the dearer option for my family, is less luxurious than an au pair would be despite costing more.

using homesick underpaid teens as skivvies to make you feel superior.

having childcare and/or babysitter is making anyone feel superior? Good grief, you do have issues to come up with that crap.

I do love the solution though, stop employing an au-pair, just use a proper nanny, all £25k ++ a year they cost You just need to adapt to find the cash (and pay sick pay, maternity leave and so on...)
Problem solved!

I had a fabulous year as an au pair in Southern Europe. As a poster above said, I got to learn a language, made a new family and friends that are still friends nearly 30 years later, had accommodation paid for and spending money - worked bloody hard as the notional hours an au pair was supposed to work went out the window, but it was a transformational experience and I will be sad if my dc won’t have such easy access to a similar opportunity.

Shocked that people don’t realise au pairs are a luxury. Or that this is the reason why some have to work in NMW jobs or not at all and are trapped because they can’t afford childcare. Or that some people don’t have a spare room.

Also, (at a guess, most) WC teens don’t go and become au pairs or do the Erasmus scheme- they have heard of it, don’t know it’s an option and wouldn’t have a clue where to start. No one they knows goes on gap years or becomes an au pair.

back to the real world, there was a thread showing photo of someone's box room with a triple bunk bed! to fit 3 of her children, and have space for the au-pair in the other room

so, how the other halves live hey!

Real world and mumsnet....there's an oxymoron if ever i heard one!

I’m a wc teen who worked as an au pair-

This whole conversation is bizarre. Brexit will screw us all except the very wealthy but mc people have no right to complain, is that right?

No one they knows goes on gap years or becomes an au pair.

funny, all the au-pairs I have had and met came from WC backgrounds.
The wealthy kids are the ones with gap year.

Helmetbymidnit- how did you know it was a thing and how to do it? I’m intrigued.

It was never on the radar for me or anyone I knew

I could not have managed without an au pair and it was not a luxury to me. There was no other feasible childcare option at the times when my husband was at sea. I worked shifts as a doctor, sometimes with long commutes. 1 school age child, one in nursery. Yes i have a good income and am rather middle class, but the reality was I needed a live-in person. The children were always asleep at night but I couldn't be at work and leave them alone could I?
No family members could help. A nanny was prohibitively expensive for the time I needed. Childminders could never accommodate my 7 am starts/nights/weekends/ late finishes.

I hasten to add, when my DP was home he was (is still) wonderful.
I have the most delightful, well adjusted teenagers btw.

if any of your teens believe that being an au-pair means going to live in their own accommodation within the mansion of a very wealthy family, they will be very disappointed.

it doesn’t matter that Brexit will make it more difficult for wc people to live abroad because wc people don’t want to live abroad, innit.

the issue - rather than being about whether au pairs are a luxury or not - is surely that Brexit will affect this country in many more ways than lots of people have considered.

I'm more concerned about the likely lack of bananas post-Brexit, but hey ho...

I always knew about them- having ‘foreign’ people coming and going was normal in my home - as soon as I could I wanted to travel and see the world.
I wanted to learn french - but that didn’t happen.
I never met a privileged, mc type while au pairing. Everyone had to work or they could not be there. Same as my family members who work in clubs/bars on beach resorts.

Agree that Brexit may, and probably will, cause massive problems for au-pairs and similar roles. What I do not agree with it that this is the fault of those who voted for Brexit. This is one of many many administrative that the government could, and should have sorted out.

It's not a choice from Europe, it is totally within the power of our government. As people have said we had au-pair before the eu and can have them from outside the eu.

If the government spent less time trying to prevent Brexit and infighting and more time accepting it and hammering out the details there is no reason why there should be a problem.

But agree with the OP it is yet another issue that should be considered.

Oh I quite agree alec, the luxury discussion is kind of bemusing to me really.

I am a single mother, I'm in the emergency services working shifts, I earn too much to get any tax credits, no childcare in my area will cover my shifts. If I change role my pay is cut due to my allowance for unsociable hours. As I said there is no childcare here for before 7am, after 6pm or weekends. My ex has our youngest 4 nights out of 14 sometimes. He pays minimal maintenance. My adult son commutes an hour for work and we have no family in the area. I have an aupair, I include her in everything with our family, I take her out with us for days out, she has bed and board, and pocket money.

The risk of there being no more aupairs is a real issue

YANBU it's a real problem. As a remainer I'm getting sorely sick of the 'oh you'll just have to pay more' brigade. No we wouldnt have had to pay more for food or childcare if this stupid Brexit hadn't been voted in. I think remainers should be more angry at the chaos that has been inflicted on the country and the fact we have to suffer when half the country said no and did not want this to happen.

But CanIleavenowplease £100 per week would be totally unaffordable for a lot of single parents

Where did I say it was affordable? I said it was cheaper than the alternatives. And I managed a short-term problem. Again, sure,y that is better than losing my job?