MARKET NEWS
British emigration to continental Europe hits ten-year high as Brexit looms - THE INDEPENDENT
© Provided by Independent Digital News & Media Limited
An increasing number of British people are leaving the UK to go and live in continental Europe ahead of Brexit, the latest figures show.
A study by academics at Oxford University and the Berlin Social Science Centre found that emigration from Britain to the EU is now at a ten-year high.
An estimated 84,000 UK citizens migrated to the EU in 2019, up from 58,000 the year before the Brexit vote in 2015, and 46,000 back in 2012.
The number of emigrants from the UK to the EU has risen continuously since 2010, and the spike has been exaggerated since the Brexit referendum of 2016.
There are now thought to be around 1.2 million British people living in Europe, the vast majority of whom are of working age.
It comes ahead of government plans to end free movement of people, which is set to continue until the end of the Brexit transition period, if a no-deal Brexit can be avoided.
The transition period is set to run until the end of 2020, but could continue until December 2022 under built-in provisions for an extension.
Citizens' rights for both EU nationals in the UK and British nationals in the has been a key issue in Brexit talks.
Speaking in the European Parliament on Tuesday morning Guy Verhofstadt, the body Brexit coordinator, said that "all problems faced by EU27 nationals in the UK need to be solved" before consent could be given for the new withdrawal agreement.
Mr Verhofstadt's demands include no citizens being deported from Britain if they miss the deadline for settled status in order to prevent "another Windrush scandal".
UK citizens living in the EU wrote to Boris Johnson two weeks ago and warned that statements by his government ministers had put their futures in the bloc as risk. The EU has said it will treat British migrants in a "reciprocal" manner to the way their own citizens are treated by British authorities.