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| Changing Nationalities |
The familiar situation to the UK is EU citizens who have made their lives, families and careers in the UK. Suddenly, carefree lives have turned to anxiety about the possibility of being asked to leave, split up etc by an uncaring and sometimes error prone bureaucracy. This is not helped by the regular news reminders of other innocents who have unwittingly being sucked into and spat out by immigration officialdom. What's more, as mentioned previously in this blog, the costs of UK citizenship, with legal fees, travel costs etc. can amount to several thousand pounds. Nevertheless, many feel it is the only thing to do and have gone down this route - 28,502 in the past year.
Tens of thousands of British expats have also been driven to apply for citizenship in EU countries where they live and work. I know of those adopting or considering German, French and Portuguese nationality. The number of British applications for Irish citizenship has nearly doubled over the past year, rising to over 60,000 last year and reaching 50,000 for the first quarter of this year.
With existing EU citizens, there is a feeling that the atmosphere in the UK is less welcoming.
Another question is, how will British friends, family and others react when meeting up with a former UK expat who has taken on another EU nationality? I can imagine that in some regions and among some strong pro Brexit groups, the reaction might not be positive. I've tried setting up a Twitter poll and Facebook poll on this question and will be curious how it turns out.
This was the third week that I'd cycled to Longstanton (12 km by my odometer). With a cooler morning, I turned up for Karen's birthday at the A14 Networking in the Taproom. I resisted the cakes until after I had had some toast!
Jane joined me volunteering at the Norris Museum for the last of the Family Fun Days before schools begin the autumn term. Today's activity was all about markets. The three most favourite activities were the scratch colour sheep, sheep pompom making and the toy shopping store with till.
Making pompoms with under sixes required a bit of innovation. Whereas my mother and the packet instructions carefully wound single strands from a ball of wool over patient hours, we had to find an easier solution. We eventually made skeins of 4 or 8 wool threads with knots at either end, reducing pompom construction time down to about 10 minutes. A lot more realistic and successful.
I made friends with a young lady under 5, who discovered the knitted characters, bags, cat and kittens of the 'Going to St Ives' riddle. It turned out that the seven wives were actually 7 princesses (principal amongst them were Maria, Ria, Lea and Number 7). They all married each another and then looked for the sacks, which turned out to be sleeping bags, so they ended up in a celebratory sleepover. Afterwards, as I left, the princesses had migrated to the grocery store and were buying food - probably for a future party.
With existing EU citizens, there is a feeling that the atmosphere in the UK is less welcoming.
Another question is, how will British friends, family and others react when meeting up with a former UK expat who has taken on another EU nationality? I can imagine that in some regions and among some strong pro Brexit groups, the reaction might not be positive. I've tried setting up a Twitter poll and Facebook poll on this question and will be curious how it turns out.
This was the third week that I'd cycled to Longstanton (12 km by my odometer). With a cooler morning, I turned up for Karen's birthday at the A14 Networking in the Taproom. I resisted the cakes until after I had had some toast!
Jane joined me volunteering at the Norris Museum for the last of the Family Fun Days before schools begin the autumn term. Today's activity was all about markets. The three most favourite activities were the scratch colour sheep, sheep pompom making and the toy shopping store with till.
Making pompoms with under sixes required a bit of innovation. Whereas my mother and the packet instructions carefully wound single strands from a ball of wool over patient hours, we had to find an easier solution. We eventually made skeins of 4 or 8 wool threads with knots at either end, reducing pompom construction time down to about 10 minutes. A lot more realistic and successful.
I made friends with a young lady under 5, who discovered the knitted characters, bags, cat and kittens of the 'Going to St Ives' riddle. It turned out that the seven wives were actually 7 princesses (principal amongst them were Maria, Ria, Lea and Number 7). They all married each another and then looked for the sacks, which turned out to be sleeping bags, so they ended up in a celebratory sleepover. Afterwards, as I left, the princesses had migrated to the grocery store and were buying food - probably for a future party.
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