As a young Brit teaching in Europe, I’m terrified of the consequences of Brexit

Amid the chaos of leaving the EU, my health insurance and residency status will be in limbo – and if I return home for Christmas who knows if I’ll be able to get back into my host country

After Brexit UK travellers could be banned from entering EU under coronavirus rules (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The European Commission has confirmed that British citizens could be barred from entering the EU after Brexit due to coronavirus safety restrictions. From 1 January, EU law will no longer apply to the UK, Brits will be subject to the same restrictions on non-essential travel as third-party countries.

Those who rushed to book holidays to Europe as the news of a vaccine broke may well feel a bit peeved. Those with jobs or in study abroad programmes will be allowed to return. Those who are completing teaching placements in Europe, however, have been forgotten.

Every year, more than 2,000 young Brits travel to Europe to support English teaching at public schools and colleges. The British Council coordinates the English Language Assistant (ELA) programme, matching UK applicants to each of the fifteen partner countries. Seven of the destinations are in Europe.

The majority of ELAs are students or recent graduates, eligibility for the programme requires at least two years of an undergraduate degree and many assistants carry out the placement as part of the study abroad year of a language course.

Despite uncertainty surrounding coronavirus-related travel restrictions, the majority of placements have gone ahead. The pandemic has exacerbated the complications caused by Brexit, the 2020-21 academic year straddles the end of the transition period.

While the British Council and their overseas partners “remain committed” to the programme, the implications of Brexit on assistants should have been foreseen. 

In Spain, where I and some 1,000 other ELAs are allocated, Brits arriving after July 2020 have been required to apply for proof of residency under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement. The application for a residency card takes a minimum of three months and can only be done from within the country. One or two in-person appointments are required, even as Spain became the first Western European country to record a million coronavirus cases.

As placements started in September, it is unlikely that most ELAs will receive their residency card in time.

The Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB) in Spain has challenged the Spanish instructions for the application of residency for UK nationals, on the basis that, under Union Law, possession of a legal document is not a prerequisite for lawful residence. In essence, the procedure for obtaining proof of residency treats EU citizens (in this case, British people covered by the Withdrawal Agreement) as non-EU citizens. 

To make matters worse, the coverage provided by the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) expires when the UK leaves the EU on 1 January. This is particularly worrying for ELAs whose placements last until mid-2021. Unless the local governments of the countries we work for choose to provide private cover, we will be left without health insurance from 1 January – in the middle of a global pandemic.

People in my situation feel abandoned by the UK government, and forgotten about by the governments of the EU states inviting us to move abroad. As we are legally classed as “volunteers” receiving a monthly stipend – rather than employed workers receiving a salary – we have limited rights in our host countries.

If the EU follows through on plans to bar UK citizens from non-essential travel to EU countries from 1 January, assistants without the necessary proof of residency may face a difficult choice, miss Christmas with our families and stay in our host countries, or go home but risk being denied reentry to our places of work.

In theory, our school allocations, rental contracts, and proof of residency application should be enough to allow us back into the EU. The reality on the ground, however, is very different. Hurried immigration procedures, coupled with the improbability of a Brexit deal, are causing chaos.

When I tried to collect my residency card at the immigration office in Alicante earlier this week, I was instantly turned away. I now face a five week wait for the card, as the office deals with Covid-induced delays and a backlog of Brexit applications. At one point, there were no appointments released in Alicante for at least six weeks.

It has been estimated that 73 per cent of people under 24 voted for Britain to remain in the EU. We did not choose to be penalised for wanting to travel, work, and teach in European countries. The door through which we were invited by EU states to come and teach English is being shut in our faces. The UK government have not been advocating for us, so who will?

Eloise Barry is a freelance journalist and English Language Assistant based in Spain