This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

Britons living in Spain are confused and fearful about their post-Brexit futures “to a quite shocking extent”, according to the author of a study, with poor support and communication from British and Spanish authorities mainly to blame.

Despite the withdrawal agreement securing the basic rights of UK citizens legally resident on the continent, Karen O’Reilly, a sociology professor at Loughborough University, said her research revealed “enormous levels of uncertainty and worry”.

Timeline From Brefusal to Brexit: a history of Britain in the EU Show Hide After 47 years and 30 days it was all over. As the clock struck 11pm on 31 January 2020, the UK was officially divorced from the EU and began trying to carve out a new global role as a sovereign nation. It was a union that got off to a tricky start and continued to be marked by the UK’s sometimes conflicted relationship with its neighbours. Brefusal The French president, Charles de Gaulle, vetoes Britain’s entry to EEC, accusing the UK of a “deep-seated hostility” towards the European project. Brentry With Sir Edward Heath having signed the accession treaty the previous year, the UK enters the EEC in an official ceremony complete with a torch-lit rally, dickie-bowed officials and a procession of political leaders, including former prime ministers Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home.

Referendum The UK decides to stay in the common market after 67% voted "yes". Margaret Thatcher, later to be leader of the Conservative party, campaigned to remain. 'Give us our money back' Margaret Thatcher negotiated what became known as the UK rebate with other EU members after the "iron lady" marched into the former French royal palace at Fontainebleau to demand “our own money back” claiming for every £2 contributed we get only £1 back” despite being one of the “three poorer” members of the community. It was a move that sowed the seeds of Tory Euroscepticism that was to later cause the Brexit schism in the party. The Bruges speech Thatcher served notice on the EU community in a defining moment in EU politics in which she questioned the expansionist plans of Jacques Delors, who had remarked that 80% of all decisions on economic and social policy would be made by the European Community within 10 years with a European government in “embryo”. That was a bridge too far for Thatcher. The cold war ends Collapse of Berlin wall and fall of communism in eastern Europe, which would later lead to expansion of EU. 'No, no, no' Divisions between the UK and the EU deepened with Thatcher telling the Commons in an infamous speech it was ‘no, no, no’ to what she saw as Delors’ continued power grab. Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper ratchets up its opposition to Europe with a two-fingered “Up yours Delors” front page. Black Wednesday A collapse in the pound forced prime minister John Major and the then chancellor Norman Lamont to pull the UK out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism. The single market On 1 January, customs checks and duties were removed across the bloc. Thatcher hailed the vision of “a single market without barriers – visible or invisible – giving you direct and unhindered access to the purchasing power of over 300 million of the world’s wealthiest and most prosperous people". Maastricht treaty Tory rebels vote against the treaty that paved the way for the creation of the European Union. John Major won the vote the following day in a pyrrhic victory. Repairing the relationship Tony Blair patches up the relationship. Signs up to social charter and workers' rights. Ukip Nigel Farage elected an MEP and immediately goes on the offensive in Brussels. “Our interests are best served by not being a member of this club,” he said in his maiden speech. “The level playing field is about as level as the decks of the Titanic after it hit an iceberg.” The euro Chancellor Gordon Brown decides the UK will not join the euro. EU enlarges to to include eight countries of the former eastern bloc including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. EU expands again, allowing Romania and Bulgaria into the club. Migrant crisis Anti-immigration hysteria seems to take hold with references to “cockroches” by Katie Hopkins in the Sun and tabloid headlines such as “How many more can we take?” and “Calais crisis: send in the dogs”. David Cameron returns from Brussels with an EU reform package - but it isn't enough to appease the Eurosceptic wing of his own party Brexit referendum The UK votes to leave the European Union, triggering David Cameron's resignation and paving the way for Theresa May to become prime minister Britain leaves the EU After years of parliamentary impasse during Theresa May's attempt to get a deal agreed, the UK leaves the EU.

O’Reilly, who has been researching the British community in Spain since the 1990s, carried out more than 100 interviews on the practical and emotional impacts of Brexit as part of the 18-month BrExpats programme at Goldsmiths, University of London.

“Information has become clearer over time and many are now getting registered, as advised,” she said. “But that process is in itself worrying for many, and many others are still confused and alarmed about how one-size-fits-all regulations will apply to what are often complex family and living arrangements.”

O’Reilly said the makeup of the British community in Spain – estimated at between 300,000 and 1 million full- and part-time residents – was widely misunderstood and the stereotype of the white, retired working-class Brit was “completely out of date”.

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Since the advent of free movement in 1992, the community has radically diversified and now includes “every kind of diversity that exists in the UK”, she said – including many young Britons living and working in major cities and bringing up families.

“Many Britons living in Spain have quite complex lives,” she said. “Some have relatives with serious medical conditions in the UK, and are worried about whether they will be able to come and live with them if necessary in the future.

“Others may spend only part of the year in Spain, and are really concerned about the implications of that – which are indeed quite considerable. Some have children who would like to study outside Spain, but aren’t sure whether they’ll be allowed to.”

For years, the British and Spanish authorities have treated the British community in Spain as “long-term tourists”, O’Reilly said, adding “Neither the UK government, nor the Spanish government, nor the EU are taking proper responsibility for these people. They suffer from a triple absence.”

Many Britons in Spain were not officially registered as Spanish residents, O’Reilly said, partly because different Spanish local authorities have interpreted free movement policies differently. The situation is exacerbated because Spain does not allow dual nationality for Britons.

“Lots of people have just buried their heads in the sand,” O’Reilly said. “It’s not hard to pass under the radar, halfway up a mountain in Spain. There are people here really living on the breadline: pretty much undocumented migrants.

“People are afraid to register because they’re worried they will be told they aren’t legal, that they won’t meet future income requirements, that they will be told to go back to a country they maybe left decades ago and where they have nothing.”

Some had concluded there was no option but to return to Britain, O’Reilly said, citing an 85-year-old woman who left after 35 years “because she felt she was just too old to wait around to see how Brexit would turn out”, and a man with a chronic illness who also felt he could not postpone the decision.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest British nationals and other protesters in Málaga wave EU and Spanish flags as they take part in a demonstration against Brexit. Photograph: AFP/Getty

There was now a clear and urgent need for both governments to “get clear, individually tailored information to people as soon as possible”, perhaps through drop-in centres, O’Reilly said: “There has to be a proper support system … I’m afraid there’s going to be quite a lot of suffering.”

Michaela Benson, the BrexPats project leader, who compiled a similar study on British residents in France, said the two reports had laid bare the alarming extent of British citizens’ uncertainty and confusion in both countries.

“Their needs have not been a central part of the negotiations, and since neither the British nor the French or Spanish governments know much about them, communication about how Brexit will intervene in their lives has been poor,” she said.

The withdrawal agreement has also left several important issues unresolved, notably the question of continued freedom of movement within the EU, the case of posted workers and several other complex individual circumstances, Benson said.

“People are still seriously worried about what the future holds,” she said.