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| Photo Credit: wallpoper.com |
Post-Brexit, British residents in Spain are uncertain whether to go home or apply for citizenship
It’s 10am and, although Llíber has the third-largest non-Spanish
population in Spain, few of them are out and about yet. Almost all of
them live in free-standing houses with gardens, scattered around this
attractive town of around 1,000 inhabitants, nestling in wooded hills
some 15 kilometers inland from Calpe, in Valencia’s Alicante province.
Most are pensioners, and on the morning of June 24, the day after the
British electorate narrowly voted to leave the European Union, their
futures in Spain suddenly became uncertain. For a start, their savings
and pensions had dropped in value overnight due to the devaluation of
the pound, while their right to vote in local elections was no longer
assured. Around 300,000 Brits live in Spain,
according to official data, a third of them in Valencia. And most of
them are now extremely apprehensive about what the future holds. “Most of them say they’ll leave here in a coffin,” says Dora, who
works in the local chemist and helps those with limited Spanish with
their prescriptions. Seven hundred of the town’s 1,100 inhabitants are
foreign, with the British community making up the majority. At the heart
of the Marina Alta district, Llíber is particularly attractive to
foreigners, says farmer Toni Morán, who also mans the telephone at the
local health center. “It’s not too cold and it’s not too hot,” he says.
“It’s also just 20 minutes from the beaches in Calpe, Benidorm, Moraira
and Xàbia, and the land isn’t as expensive as down on the coast.” Since the Brexit vote, however, there are more and more signs going
up to advertise properties for sale along the coast of Alicante. Of
course, some were there before Brexit, and some of those selling are
British pensioners aged between 75 and 80 who want to get back to
Britain and their families because their partner has died and they don’t
want to be alone in their old age. But Suzanne McAllister, who for the last five years has been a member
of the town council on behalf of the Popular Party and whose duties
mainly involve sorting out paperwork for her fellow British retirees, is
not keen to go home. “If necessary, I’ll apply for Spanish
nationality,” she says, adding that most who would like to stay are
leaning toward the double-nationality solution.
Brexit “lies”
A native of Leicester, McAllister is angry with those who supported
Brexit. “In the campaign for the referendum, a lot of lies were told,”
she says. “The immediate consequence has been the weakening of the pound
and, in spite of everything, they keep telling us it’s temporary and
that it will get stronger again in a few months. But we don’t have a
crystal ball.” Brits living in Spain
will lose their right to vote in local elections when Brexit becomes a
reality. “In Valencia, Murcia and Alicante, there are a lot of town
councils with British people serving on them,” says McAllister.
“Something has to be done.” The process promises to be a long one. David Wicks, a 71-year-old
English pensioner, says he is not about to make any drastic changes.
He’s one of the few Brits to be drawing a Spanish pension and says he’s
not overly concerned about his own situation. “Whatever happens,” he
says, “Spain is home. I hope the Spanish government lets me stay until I
die.” Wicks says that while Britain has become increasingly xenophobic in
the last few years, many of the staff in the health service are foreign,
to the extent that he believes it would collapse without them. Lorrie Harkness, 67, says she will apply for Spanish nationality if
she needs to, adding she would like the United Kingdom to leave the EU
as soon as possible rather than waiting until the end of the two-year
withdrawal period, which she says is simply extending the uncertainty.
“We can’t just wait and wait,” says Harkness. who is dubious about the
UK’s ability to maintain a reciprocal agreement over health and the
pensions agreement as it stands. According to Harkness, the UK could have tightened immigration
controls years ago and didn’t. Now she thinks it’s too late. “People go
to Britain because they get financial support they don’t get elsewhere,”
she says. “Everyone wants to live there. Of course they do.”
EL PAÍS Photo
