Needing a visa is like being in a permanent limbo. If you have ever requested a work or study visa, then you know what I’m talking about. If not, let me give you the run-down. You spend hundreds of euros on documents, apostilles, translations. You wait countless hours for decisions to come through, scrambling to make appointments at consulates, unable to plan ahead. No one gives you any assurances as to when you might be able to move to your new home or start your new job. And even then, once (if) you finally get your visa, it's still far from plain sailing. You miss out on job opportunities because your visa can’t be renewed on time, or because employers simply don't sponsor visas. Your friendships hang in the balance because you don’t know whether, when your visa expires, you will be able to get a new one, or if you will be given your marching orders. You are suspended in mid-air, a file lost in a backlog at the Ministry of the Interior. In my experience, losing my freedom of movement in the EU has been the most anxiety-inducing consequence of Brexit.
So you can imagine how my heart leapt when, in April last year, the EU offered to negotiate a Youth Mobility Scheme with the UK, whereby both EU and UK citizens between the ages of 18 and 30 would have the right to stay for up to 4 years in their destination country. However, this offer was immediately rejected by the then-soon-to-be Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the incumbent Conservative government.
The speed at which both Labour and the Conservatives rejected the EU’s offer seems to suggest that both parties believe that they can only lose votes to the far right. It’s no secret that ending freedom of movement was one of the rallying cries of Brexiteers in 2016, and something which vote-seeking politicians have since refused to forget. Successive governments have pandered to the far right on migration, and rejecting the Youth Mobility Scheme is just the cherry on the cake. Indeed, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is said to believe that such a scheme would be “incompatible” with the government pledge to bring down migration.
The maddening thing is that the UK already has similar deals with 12 other countries, including Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Iceland. Within those countries, just 23,000 people used youth mobility schemes to come to the UK in 2023 - a drop in the ocean compared to the 1.2 million people who migrated to the UK overall that year. This, more than anything, highlights that Brexit is behind the government’s wariness of the EU’s offer. Genuine concerns about migration numbers are nothing to compared to how the far right and the press would spin the scheme into a “betrayal” of Brexit and the British people.
However, the government would do well to remember that Eurosceptics concerned about migration aren’t the only ones with a vote in the UK. Over 23% of the electorate voted for openly pro-European parties last year, not to mention the 1.3 million British citizens living in the EU who stand to benefit from increased mobility.
However, there is some hope. The debate surrounding the Youth Mobility Scheme was reignited this week by Liberal Democrat MP James MacCleary, who has proposed a bill in the House of Commons to introduce the scheme into UK law.
One of the UK government “missions” is kickstarting economic growth, which it has thus far struggled to achieve. MacCleary argues that if the government is serious about wanting to improve the economy, then a Youth Mobility Scheme is a “no-brainer.” Indeed, the UK could stand to gain a few more workers. Lower migration from the EU since Brexit has reduced the number of people available for work. As of November 2024, there were 818,000 vacancies in the UK labour market. In August 2023, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Commission identified a tight labour market (where there is a scarcity of workers available to fill job vacancies) as a persistent inflationary pressure in the economy, something which the government is still grappling with. Youth mobility could help slacken the labour market.
MacCleary also points to the government goal of resetting relations with the EU. If that’s the plan, then a Youth Mobility Scheme is the way to go. The EU has been clear about what it wants: a leaked codex of EU positions described the scheme as “an indispensable element” of the upcoming UK-EU reset negotiations. The British government may well have to accept the Youth Mobility Scheme in order to secure the EU trade benefits it really cares about. As MacCleary explains, “Britain’s ability to strike new deals on defence, agriculture and trade would falter if we sent the signal that we are unwilling to move on a pragmatic, mutually beneficial scheme like this one.” The UK has a lot to gain from closer collaboration with the EU. In the words of a senior fellow at Bruegel, Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, “At the end of the day, it is more important for the UK than it is for the EU to have this relationship reset.”
My message to the British government: don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
So you can imagine how my heart leapt when, in April last year, the EU offered to negotiate a Youth Mobility Scheme with the UK, whereby both EU and UK citizens between the ages of 18 and 30 would have the right to stay for up to 4 years in their destination country. However, this offer was immediately rejected by the then-soon-to-be Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the incumbent Conservative government.
The speed at which both Labour and the Conservatives rejected the EU’s offer seems to suggest that both parties believe that they can only lose votes to the far right. It’s no secret that ending freedom of movement was one of the rallying cries of Brexiteers in 2016, and something which vote-seeking politicians have since refused to forget. Successive governments have pandered to the far right on migration, and rejecting the Youth Mobility Scheme is just the cherry on the cake. Indeed, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is said to believe that such a scheme would be “incompatible” with the government pledge to bring down migration.
The maddening thing is that the UK already has similar deals with 12 other countries, including Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Iceland. Within those countries, just 23,000 people used youth mobility schemes to come to the UK in 2023 - a drop in the ocean compared to the 1.2 million people who migrated to the UK overall that year. This, more than anything, highlights that Brexit is behind the government’s wariness of the EU’s offer. Genuine concerns about migration numbers are nothing to compared to how the far right and the press would spin the scheme into a “betrayal” of Brexit and the British people.
However, the government would do well to remember that Eurosceptics concerned about migration aren’t the only ones with a vote in the UK. Over 23% of the electorate voted for openly pro-European parties last year, not to mention the 1.3 million British citizens living in the EU who stand to benefit from increased mobility.
However, there is some hope. The debate surrounding the Youth Mobility Scheme was reignited this week by Liberal Democrat MP James MacCleary, who has proposed a bill in the House of Commons to introduce the scheme into UK law.
One of the UK government “missions” is kickstarting economic growth, which it has thus far struggled to achieve. MacCleary argues that if the government is serious about wanting to improve the economy, then a Youth Mobility Scheme is a “no-brainer.” Indeed, the UK could stand to gain a few more workers. Lower migration from the EU since Brexit has reduced the number of people available for work. As of November 2024, there were 818,000 vacancies in the UK labour market. In August 2023, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Commission identified a tight labour market (where there is a scarcity of workers available to fill job vacancies) as a persistent inflationary pressure in the economy, something which the government is still grappling with. Youth mobility could help slacken the labour market.
MacCleary also points to the government goal of resetting relations with the EU. If that’s the plan, then a Youth Mobility Scheme is the way to go. The EU has been clear about what it wants: a leaked codex of EU positions described the scheme as “an indispensable element” of the upcoming UK-EU reset negotiations. The British government may well have to accept the Youth Mobility Scheme in order to secure the EU trade benefits it really cares about. As MacCleary explains, “Britain’s ability to strike new deals on defence, agriculture and trade would falter if we sent the signal that we are unwilling to move on a pragmatic, mutually beneficial scheme like this one.” The UK has a lot to gain from closer collaboration with the EU. In the words of a senior fellow at Bruegel, Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, “At the end of the day, it is more important for the UK than it is for the EU to have this relationship reset.”
My message to the British government: don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not represent the views or opinions of my employer.
