British Expats Could Ensure the UK Remains in the EU

British Expats Could Ensure the UK Remains in the EU

14/06/2016 0 Di Redazione

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brexitBritish Expats Could Ensure the UK Remains in the EU

Near­ly two thirds of eli­gi­ble Bri­tish expa­ts will vote for the UK to remain in the EU at this mon­th’s EU Refe­ren­dum, accor­ding to a sur­vey by Experts for Expa­ts.

The sur­vey which asked Bri­tish expa­ts around the world about their voting beha­viour found that 63% would vote to remain in the EU, whi­le 12% remai­ned unde­ci­ded and only 25% would sup­port Bre­xit.

Robert Hal­lums, foun­der of Experts for Expa­ts, belie­ves the expat vote could yet pro­ve cru­cial “Despi­te many expa­ts being una­ble to vote, with the refe­ren­dum too clo­se to call, hun­dreds of thou­sands of Bri­tish expa­ts could yet cast the deci­ding vote — and they over­whel­min­gly want the UK remain in the EU.”

“The lack of plan­ning from the Govern­ment which would under­pin any exit stra­te­gy is absent, crea­ting a vacuum which has sub­se­quen­tly been fil­led with gues­swork and uncer­tain­ty.”

The EU Refe­ren­dum on June 23rd is like­ly to have a major impact on expa­ts due to cur­ren­cy fluc­tua­tions, uncer­tain­ty over the UK eco­no­my and in the lon­ger term, tax and visa requi­re­men­ts.

With a sha­me­less bat­tle being fought in the UK, it’s vital not to discount the role that Bri­tish expa­ts could yet have on the out­co­me, even thou­gh up to a third of expa­ts no lon­ger have the vote due to the 15-year rule.

Key influen­ces on voting beha­viour

79% of Bri­tish expa­ts do not belie­ve the­re are enou­gh fac­ts being pre­sen­ted during the various deba­tes ‑of tho­se loo­king to vote lea­ve, only 29% belie­ve they have enou­gh fac­tual infor­ma­tion to make an infor­med deci­sion.

Key to the out­co­me will be the abi­li­ty of either side to per­sua­de tho­se who remain unde­ci­ded about which way to vote. For the unde­ci­ded Bri­tish expa­ts, their deci­sion will be based on their under­stan­ding of the bene­fi­ts that being a mem­ber of the EU brings.

When asked to sco­re the pri­ma­ry fac­tors which could influen­ce their deci­sion, expa­ts rated the bene­fi­ts of EU mem­ber­ship as the most impor­tant fac­tor with an ave­ra­ge sco­re of 8.5 out of 10. They also felt that tra­de agree­men­ts were equal­ly impor­tant.

The finan­cial impact of EU mem­ber­ship was seen as lea­st impor­tant with mem­ber­ship fees only sco­ring 6.4 and cur­ren­cy fluc­tua­tions sco­ring 7 out of 10.

Bri­tish expa­ts “silen­ced”

Accor­ding to Robert Hal­lums the cru­cial expat vote has been swept under the car­pet. “The deci­sion whe­ther the UK should remain in the EU or Bre­xit will impact Bri­tish expa­ts living in the EU more than anyo­ne else.”

“It’s incre­di­ble that the Con­ser­va­ti­ve Govern­ment has not only back-trac­ked on their pro­mi­se to abo­lish the 15-year rule, but they are also silen­cing hun­dreds of thou­sands of voters who could be cru­cial in deter­mi­ning the out­co­me of the EU Refe­ren­dum.”

“If David Came­ron was serious about wan­ting to remain, the fact that they con­ti­nue to turn their backs on tax pay­ing Bri­tish expa­ts is inex­pli­ca­ble.”

Expa­ts who par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the sur­vey agreed.

Anne, a Bri­tish Expat living in Fran­ce, said “I’m a Bri­tish citi­zen but have no ‘right’ to vote for the sim­ple rea­son that I have been living in Fran­ce for over 15 years! But the­re’s no pro­blem when it comes to pay­ing taxes in both Fran­ce & the UK!”

Har­ry, also in Fran­ce, is dee­ply con­cer­ned about the impact of Bre­xit, “It is a very wor­ry­ing time for us not kno­wing what is going to hap­pen, which leads me to an ana­lo­gy of a potho­ler faced with ente­ring a potho­le he kno­ws well, albeit the­re are some hazards along the way, OR ente­ring an undi­sco­ve­red potho­le and fin­ding all man­ner of hazards, get­ting stuck, and not being able to get out again!!”

James, an expat in Sin­ga­po­re, is disap­poin­ted how both sides are run­ning the cam­pai­gn, and despi­te wan­ting to remain, does not like the idea of sup­por­ting Came­ron, “I am pro stay­ing in. Howe­ver, the refe­ren­dum will be based on per­so­na­li­ties and nothing to do with the que­stions asked. By this I mean we have con­stan­tly seen Came­ron sca­re­mon­ge­ring, rather than sta­ting pre­ci­se fac­ts.”

Ano­ther expat living in Ger­ma­ny, Eli­sa­beth, has also been shoc­ked by the cam­pai­gns, espe­cial­ly inter­views by Boris John­son who she belie­ves is “play­ing to the mas­ses and anti-Ger­man press” and also like­ned him to Donald Trump.

Whi­le it’s hard­ly a sur­pri­se that Bri­tish expa­ts would seek to remain in the EU, their col­lec­ti­ve voi­ce should not be unde­re­sti­ma­ted. In most cases they not only pay tax in the UK, but have con­tri­bu­ted for many years to the UK, a coun­try which has made eve­ry effort to silen­ce their voi­ce.

And yet, with the result of the refe­ren­dum too clo­se to call, hun­dreds of thou­sands of voting expa­ts could yet have the final say on the out­co­me of the EU Refe­ren­dum later this month.

About Experts for Expa­ts Ltd

Experts for Expa­ts is an onli­ne resour­ce desi­gned for expa­ts, under­pin­ned by a net­work of inde­pen­dent experts pro­vi­ding impar­tial advi­ce ena­bling peo­ple to make qua­li­fied deci­sions about their lives abroad.

Experts for Expa­ts

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