



With an estimated 3 million non-national EU citizens living in the UK, it is not only the British who are watching nervously for the referendum result on 24 June.

EU workers from Waterford to Wexford in Ireland, and from Roscoff in France and Riga in Latvia to Seville in Spain will be on tenterhooks as they learn whether it will be easier to stay or to leave their adopted home.

Poles make up the largest cohort, with around 800,000 living in the UK. At 383,000, Irish citizens are the second-largest group, and Germans the third-largest at 301,000, according to the latest available figures from the Office for National Statistics.

The number of Romanians and Bulgarians, frequently maligned by the leave campaign as job snatchers and sponges, stood at 175,000 and 59,000 respectively, but those figures are expected to rise when the next set of statistics, for 2015, are released in August.

All face potentially life-changing consequences if Britain votes to leave the EU, but none apart from the Irish have the right to vote in the referendum.

The restaurateur

Severio Bruno, 38, is Italian and lives in Sheffield.

If Brexit happens I don’t know if I will be able to run my restaurant any more.

Saverio Bruno. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Severio Bruno runs the popular VeroGusto restaurant in Sheffield, after settling there years ago with his wife, a Naples-born chef wife. They have two children, two-year-old Victoria, and Francesco, six. He says the restaurant trade would be killed without European workers.



For Bruno the referendum has created huge uncertainty, both for his family and his business. “I employ 12 or 13 people. Four are Italians and six or seven are Polish. I might have to sell everything and go home. I’ve settled here and I don’t think it’s fair that I would have to go back and give up everything after all the tax I’ve paid.



“It’s very hard to find British people to work in restaurants. For us Italians it is a career, but in England it is looked down on, which is a shame. I have to go through about 100 English people before I find the right one,” he says.

The social worker

Uta Schmidtblaicher, 35, is German and lives in Portsmouth.

The UK didn’t have to invest in our education, but now we are carrying out vital jobs.

Uta Schmidtblaicher.

Schmidtblaicher initially came to the UK to study for six months, but fell in love and now has two young children with her partner Jody.

“I’m a social worker and work for Portsmouth city council … When I first came here 10 years ago the council was desperate for social workers and there were lots of vacancies.

“I feel like I make a real difference to the community here with the work that I do. I wouldn’t be happy in a job where I didn’t feel like I was making a difference to people’s lives.”

Schmidtblaicher thinks the divisive language employed by the leave campaign is dangerous. “I hate that in the debates leading up to the referendum there has been an ‘us and them’ sentiment. It’s talking about what divides us rather than what brings us together.

“Everybody has been very friendly and welcoming to me here, and I would hate to think that people are secretly thinking that they would be better off without us.

“The UK didn’t have to invest in our education, but now we are carrying out vital jobs for the British public such as GPs, social workers, entrepreneurs, midwives, dentists, nurses, teachers … The list goes on. It would be difficult to replace us.”

The lorry driver

Michael Tyser, 37, is Czech and lives in Derbyshire.



My wife and I work really hard. I feel a bit sad when I hear some of the things people say.

Michael Tyser with his two-year-old daughter Maya.

Michael Tyser previously worked as a teacher in the Czech Republic for around £200 a month, but soon fell behind with his rent payments. So 10 years ago, he and his wife decided to up sticks and move to Britain. They worked in a factory for six years and now have a two-year-old daughter, Maya.

“My brother was already working in Scotland and when I started to encounter financial problems back home he said he would help me find a job.

“The factory started to lose money, so I left and found a job as a lorry driver for a small family company. I work 15 hours a day, but since joining I feel like luck is finally shining on me.

“It was difficult at first, but now I have a good employer and earn good money.



“My wife and I work really hard. I feel a bit sad when I hear some of the things people say. Most of the people who come here from Europe are serious about wanting to live and work here, and invest their money back into the country.

The GP

Sebastian Kalwij, 50, is Dutch and lives in London.

The NHS is quite reliant on European workers and if they all think of leaving in the event of a Brexit, that will have a big impact.

Sebastian Kalwij.

Sebastian Kalwij intended to stay in the UK for three months, but ended up staying for 21 years. “There was a seamless transition,” he says, when he came to Britain in 1994 with a medical degree recognised by the General Medical Council - something that may no longer be guaranteed if the leave campaign wins the referendum.

He is now a GP in inner-city London and a director of the local clinical commissioning group, which decides on health policies for 50 GP practices in Lewisham.

He never tires of his work, he says, with “so many interesting patients, their stories, their histories … We have 51 nationalities on our books.”

His long-term plan has been to stay in the UK until he retires, but now for the first time he is not sure. Nor, he says, are his non-British colleagues.

“When I came here first it was like the Eurovision. The hospital I worked in in Dartford was full of staff from all over Europe and it was a great atmosphere.

“It doesn’t matter if you are Dutch, Irish or Romanian. But now there is a lot of uncertainty and I’m a bit miffed. I would seriously consider going back to Holland, where there is a shortage of doctors and I could easily get work. Spain or Portugal would also be an option. Canada has also been advertising for doctors.

“Would I feel comfortable in a country that had racial overtones? I find Britain is very friendly and open, but I don’t like the anti-European sentiment.”

The public affairs and policy associate

Anna, 25, is Latvian and lives in London.

I’ve never felt not welcome here. It would be quite a shock if Britain were to leave.

Anna. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

At 25, Anna speaks four languages fluently - Latvian, Russian, English and French. She chose to come to Britain to do A-levels. “I always wanted to finish my education in a different language to help me become bilingual and make me more competitive on the jobs market.”

She subsequently studied French and international relations in Aberdeen and is a year into a job at the charity The Challenge. She says the leave campaign is demoralising and that she is considering applying for citizenship. She worries, however, about whether she would qualify, while at the moment she has the right to permanent residence as an EU national.

“I hope Britain will vote to stay. If people do vote to leave and it is won by a large margin, will it get nastier? Will people start saying things in the streets to your face? I think it could legitimise xenophobia. I am also afraid it will not solve the problems of migration. It will be pyrrhic victory.”

The financial services company owner



Mario Van Poppel, 36, is Belgian and lives in Berkshire.

It’s keeping me awake at night

Mario Van Poppel.

Mario Van Poppel moved to the UK after a job offer for a pan-European role. “We ran a financial business in Belgium which specialises in exchanging pre-euro currencies, and when we came to the UK we decided to start the English equivalent here.”

Van Poppel and his wife, who is from Poland, live in Datchet with their three children, two of whom were born here. “I think about the referendum and read about it all the time. Some of the things being said make you feel like you’re not wanted.

“We would love to stay. Our business is here, our children go to school here and they have friends here.”

As a business owner he relies a lot on the freedom of movement within Europe. “Many of our relationships with clients are on a European level. We have staff that are British, but many are from Europe as we ask them to travel a lot. It helps to know the local language and the currency we are dealing with.

“There is so much talent here from all around the world, and I love the ethic of working hard and seeing it pay off.”

The freelance writer

Seamas O’Reilly, 30, is Irish and lives in London.

This creeping sense of snooty superiority is at best smug and at worst slightly sinister.

Seamas O’Reilly.

After graduating from Trinity College in Dublin just as the International Monetary Fund and the EU bailed out Ireland, Seamas O’Reilly reckoned London offered better prospects for an English literature and history graduate.

“I’ve been able to flourish in a way that I wouldn’t have in Dublin,” he says.

Originally from Derry on the border of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, he questions the leave campaign’s knowledge of border security.

“During my childhood there were the Troubles on the border, the customs house was blown up. It’s a kick-boxing hall now. So what are they going to do if Brexit happens? Kick the kick-boxers out? Reintroduce an armed checkpoint at a cost of millions? Or are they going to keep it as is? If so, then any person who wants to come in from the EU can just go to Ireland and cross the border.”

He says Boris Johnson is in it “for his own personal brand” while Nigel Farage is “desperate to prove his relevance”, and neither of them seem to realise that Britain shares a land border with the EU.

“This creeping sense of snooty superiority or distancing from the European project is at best smug and distasteful, and at worst slightly sinister. The contempt for others is disgusting and it doesn’t fit in with British values.”

The university support officer

Maria Helena Żukowska, 24, is Polish and lives in Leeds.

Will Polish delis, restaurants and supermarkets survive?

Maria Helena Żukowska.

In 2007, three years after Poland joined the EU, Maria Helena Żukowska came to Britain with her mother when she was 15. After completing her studies she went on to read English literature at Leeds Beckett University and has co-authored a book, Poles in the UK, which charts Anglo-Polish links across the ages.

One of the most interesting things she discovered during her research was that historians now think King Canute was half Polish.

She says the uncertainty for Poles in Britain must also be felt by Brits in Europe. “Will people still have the right to freedom of movement? Will visas come into the equation for those that have already worked here?

“People who have come here and set up their own businesses could potentially be forced out. If the UK loses access to the single European market, Polish delis and restaurants might not survive, as importing goods from the continent might prove too expensive.

“It could also have an impact on higher education. At the moment Poles pay home fees of £9,000, but if Britain leaves students wouldn’t be able to afford the foreign fees.”

The neuropsychologist

Ingrid Stratton, 40, is Dutch and lives in Portsmouth.

I’m starting to feel a bit less welcome.

Ingrid Stratton.

Before Ingrid Stratton moved to Portsmouth 11 years ago she remembers going to city hall in her hometown in Holland. “It wasn’t even emigrating. It was just moving, like you were moving house. I guess that could all change now.”

Stratton works as a cognitive behavioural psychologist at the Solent NHS Trust and worries about the future for her four-year-old daughter, who holds a Dutch and British passport on account of her former husband, a Scot.

“I’m starting to feel a bit less welcome. I’ve been here for a long time and I feel completely at home, and I wonder would that change. I think that’s really sad, and a shame.”

She envisioned a future for her daughter that was world-wise and multi-national with the freedom to be educated in Holland if she so wished. “I wanted her to experience the world I did, where you are not alone, you are part of the wider world on things like human rights and the environment,” she says.

“I really don’t want to live in a country that is mono-cultural and regimented, where they make all their own rules and are accountable to no one.

“I don’t understand the fear British people have about their identity. It seems to me it’s doing pretty well at doing that already, you still drive on the left, you’ve got pounds and miles.”

The university researcher

Wouter Servaas, 37, is Dutch and lives in Sheffield.

I don’t earn enough to stay if they bring in the rules for non-EEA countries.

Wouter Servaas.

Wouter Servaas feels he is well integrated into life in Sheffield and spends much time volunteering at a local farm that helps autistic children ride horses.

“For the first time since I arrived in the UK, I feel as if my contributions to British society, both financially and socially, are not appreciated, as if I suddenly have become this undesired alien. The bile of certain Brexit campaigners is astonishing, and up to a couple of years ago, the preserve for certain shady margins on the right side of the political spectrum.

“With the referendum, the leave campaigners started off by putting distance between themselves and Nigel Farage, but now it’s all about migration. They are betraying the very British values that helped shape Europe after the war.

He says he knows the university values his work, otherwise they would not have promoted him. He is also annoyed that he is unable to vote in a referendum that could potentially have life-changing consequences for him.

Servaas fears that if Britain votes to leave on 23 June, non-British EU nationals will be treated like non-EEA immigrants and so required to earn more than £35,000 to have indefinite leave to remain. “This will affect a huge number of people like nurses in the public sector,” he says.

The bartender

Loredana Cobzaru, 31, is Romanian and lives in London.

Depending on the result I might end up going back to Romania.

Loredana Cobzaru.

Loredana Cobzaru moved to the UK and worked as a waitress in a cafe for six years before moving to her current job as a bartender in a club. “I was a dental nurse in Romania, but left because the money wasn’t very good.

“My life has changed a lot in the last few years since I stopped waitressing. I enjoy it a lot more than I did before. I prefer working evenings and my lifestyle now is better.”

Cobzaru is not really worried about the UK leaving, but her ties to her family back home will always be a magnet. “I don’t think it will affect me really, but I still don’t think the UK should leave. People think lots of things will change, but I don’t think much will happen.”

The researcher



Istvan Zoltan Zardai, 30, is Hungarian and lives in Oxford.

I find it sad that I might be discriminated against because I’m from Europe.

Istvan Zoltan Zardai.

Working as an administrator at Oxford Brookes University, Istvan Zoltan Zardai has held jobs as a traffic counter, a printer and computer checker to help fund his PhD. He speaks three languages - Hungarian, German and English.

“I really like the workplace culture here. People are kind, supportive and efficient.



“Asking for help and advice is seen as cooperativeness not as incompetence, as in some eastern European countries.”

Zardai is worried about the way he will be treated if Brexit happens. “At the moment I feel quite at home and at peace here.

“I find it sad that I might be discriminated against because I’m from Europe. Most of the people are nice and friendly but maybe they’re pretending. I just don’t know.



“Some of my British colleagues are annoyed about the way the referendum has been conducted and feel it’s really divisive. I think if the UK left it could give a boost to xenophobia and prejudice.”



• This article was amended on 3 June 2016. An earlier version referred to Derry as being on the border with Northern Ireland rather than in Northern Ireland itself, and omitted the words “Servaas fears that” from the start of a sentence.

This article was amended on 5 May 2020 to remove some personal information.



