The Herald - The Herald Magazine
EUROPEANS IN SCOTLAND
What does the future hold for EU nationals living north of the Border?
VLADIMIRA MOULISOVA admits she couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing when her husband woke her at 4am to say Britain had voted for Brexit. “We knew from the polls that quite a lot of people in England would probably vote Leave but we never thought Brexit would actually happen,” says the 38-year-old from the Czech Republic. “And, of course, we live in Scotland, where people are more pro-European and the campaign had been very different. It was shocking.”
Moulisova, who lives in the west end of Glasgow with her Czech husband and 11-month-old daughter Anastasie, who was born in the city, is among the 173,000-strong population of European Union nationals living and working in Scotland.
It’s an uncertain time for these adopted Scots, who make up a population bigger than that of Dundee. They come from all across the continent – from France in the west to the Baltic nations of the east. Seven weeks since the UK as a whole voted to leave the EU in a referendum, while Scotland voted strongly to remain, the new UK government led by Theresa May has chosen not to clarify their status. Whether they will be allowed to stay in the UK permanently and, if so, under what terms, remains unresolved.
The prime minister and the new chancellor, Philip Hammond, have said they won’t give firm assurances until they have received similar guarantees on the future of the 1.2 million UK nationals living in the EU. The government may also wish to wait until the EU signals how it intends to answer UK calls for generous trade deals and curbs on immigration before appearing to be too magnanimous; there is, after all, the English pro-Brexit electorate to consider. And since formal negotiations with the EU look to be some time away, the fate of EU nationals here will likely hang in the balance for many months, even years, to come.
All this has prompted critics, including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, to accuse May of using the UK’s 2.9 million EU nationals as bargaining chips.
The manoeuvring and strategising of
The campaign focused on immigration and was concentrated against us. It was manipulative – people were not given accurate information
governments and politicians is one thing, then. But the consequences of the referendum result for ordinary people, particularly those who came here under free movement rules, is quite another. Behind each “bargaining chip” is an individual or family, each with friends and community ties, a work and social life, hopes, dreams and fears for the future.
But how has the Brexit vote changed their plans for the future? How do they feel about the victorious campaign run by Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, which focused on immigrants from eastern Europe and was accused by many of being nasty and divisive? And do they still feel welcome in Scotland?
Moulisova, who works as a research biologist at Glasgow University, and her husband Michal Masin have spent much of the last few weeks going over these questions in their minds. She believes Westminster politicians are playing games with the lives of EU nationals, something she says was made worse by the fact they weren’t allowed to vote in June’s referendum, so had no way to influence the debate.
“We are not thinking about leaving at the moment,” she says in fluent English. “We are very happy in Scotland. We have always felt very welcome here and have lots of friends.
“This is our home and we believe we make a good contribution. But if Brexit changes the conditions under which we are here – for example, if our access to healthcare changed – we might have to reconsider, especially as we have our daughter to think about too. We have already been granted right to remain [permanent residency] but our daughter hasn’t yet.
“We don’t want to be discriminated against. Better to be a stranger in another country than a second-class citizen.”
The couple, from a small town in western Bohemia, have lived in Scotland for almost 10 years, and were particularly upset by what they saw as the “disrespectful” and “factually incorrect” way eastern Europeans were portrayed by both sides of the campaign in the referendum.
“The campaign focused on immigration, and was concentrated against