A nice EU thread about love. Did freedom of movement enable you to meet your partner?

[KennDodd]

I know lots of people who would never have been in the right place at the right time were it not for our rights as EU citizens to freedom of movement. Lots of children born as well.

Yes, my husband moved to the UK and we met at work, we have two children and have lived in three countries together, we never would have met without freedom of movement.

It makes me so sad that we're taking this gift away from our children. I hope it isn't long before these rights are returned to them.

My DM moved from an EU country to the UK in the 70s, where she met my Dad. Then I moved to her original country, where I met DP who is British and had moved there with his parents as a child. We’re all just one decision away from a totally different life!

Actually no, DH spent the first few years queueing to renew permanence permit as a foreign student every 6 months, coming from outside the EU (we both lived in EU and not U.K. at the time). Then we moved with our first child to the U.K., and had the second one here. We know how badly bureocracy can complicate simple things like forming a family and deciding where to put roots.

A very close friend of mine is a working class black man from Tottenham who moved to Cologne for work, met and married a German woman, and is now raising two kids on a horse farm in France.

True FoM love story.

Not my husband but my last serious boyfriend before him, and a few flings at various times during my late teens and early 20s too.

Yes but I live in Ireland so will have continued FoM

My son is the result of FOM. I am very glad he will still have it as a result of his other citizenship.

OP my family has moved lived and married people from all over the world!
From Italy, Germany, Spain , Poland and Holland, all pre EU.

People were able to move and work before 75

My son's utterly delightful g/f is a European who came here to study and is now working and paying taxes and I am absolutely mortified to think that anyone might have anything against her.
She is exactly the sort of skilled hardworking young person we should be welcoming with open arms.
It was an honour to be invited to meet her family and visit her home country last year.

*off to weep a little weep over fucking Brexit

Yes my husband is French and we were able to meet and continue our relationship without any worries about immigration and visas thanks to the EU and freedom of movement.

We have plenty of friends and family with similar stories.

For us, Brexit is deeply personal and emotive.

My husband is French and we met at work, married and have children and our home here. Thanks to FOM.
But after 25 years of living happily in the UK as a French man, he has decided to become a British citizen, because the insecurity of what might happen to our family was too much, and his job security has been impacted.

i suppose this 'love' is only an EU love - and my Ausrtalian and American marriages don't count.
I have to say my Biitish born and bred son hasn't experienced this EU-Love at all, having spent most of his life 'excluded' from the age of 6.

Autism doesn't have a nationality or belongs in any current schism. I don't think that the UK's remian/leave/whatever will affect my child at all - so really speaking "for the children" is as meaningless as the next 6 year old autistic child that is that excluded from your child's school is.

Don't give me this "about the children shit" - you couldn't give a rat's arse about my ds for the last 17 years.

Absolutely! My DP lived in Zurich and we met online. He's worked around Europe for the last 10 years but considers Portugal (where I've lived for 12 years) as home. Brexit will make life unnecessarily difficult for no good reason.

My husband is a non-EU immigrant, think there will be less of them about in future too.

Yes. My husband moved to the UK from the RU for work. We met there and we are now married with a beautiful (thankfully dual nationality) daughter. My also had dual nationality now and I am eligible to apply for his home nationality as well. So, we will be ok but I feel sad about it. I have twice worked in the EU in the past, in two different countries and loved being able to just up sticks and go without the burocracy.

My husband is European and we met and lived in London, and got married in Spain. We have 2 children and luckily at the time registered them with the Spanish consulate so they have Spanish and UK passports. We moved to Spain (initially temporarily) two years ago as we felt the attitude change post-Brexit. If the UK crash out without a deal then we will never move back as I won't risk my family being treated badly or potentially giving the children a lower quality of life. The whole thing makes me sad and I worry I will never really belong anywhere now.

Hateisnotgood,
Sorry to hear of your son's experience. However the EU is not to blame and the lack of proper resources for your son is only likleyhood to get worse.
My partner is an EU citizen we have two children. I worry about our future, both the regulatory aspect and general anti EU feeling.

On a thread where it was at all relevant to the discussion I would have empathy and compassion regarding the issue of prejudice against and lack of support for people with autism.

On this thread (which is in the Brexit section FFS) it's completely fucking irrelevant. And I resent someone demanding that we discuss it. Start a new thread.

hateisnogood sorry about your son - did you see some questions around autism were raised at Pmq's today?

I do really worry about how isolating this EU stuff is and who wants to send home highly skilled or hardworking EU citizens who help out UK citizens... I don't get it.

My last two boyfriends were Belgian and German. Though I put that down more to the spread of the Internet than FoM. Mind you, budget airlines probably wouldn't have grown in the same way without FoM, and they definitely played their part.

One of the things I love about my current workplace is how international it is - not just European, though lots of them, too. I will be really upset if that changes a lot.

No, my DH and I were both on work visas in a third (non-EU) country. However, I feel desperately sad that our children will lose the right to freedom of movement within the EU. It's such a backwards step.

DS2s lovely partner is here because of FoM. She came over from Finland for a year to improve her English, though what needed improving I'm not sure, met DS and stayed. Hard working IT professional from a country we would do well to emulate in many ways.
DHs cousin met a Dutch lad while travelling so got a job in Holland, they married & now he is a CEO in this country.

I didn’t meet my DP through FOM but it has allowed us to move to Germany, where he is self employed. I have now taken German citizenship to secure us here. Fuck Brexit and all who voted for this shitshow.

Yep, my DP is Eastern European, we met at work in London. I am mortified the country he chose to move to and works extremely hard in has decided not to want him. The phrase ‘oh but I didn’t mean you’ from brexiteers we know and I’m related to is unbelievably insulting.