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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/27/eu-citizen-uk-theresa-may-offer-limbo-status-id-cards
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| I’m an EU citizen in the UK. Theresa May’s offer leaves us in limbo | I’m an EU citizen in the UK. Theresa May’s offer leaves us in limbo |
| (7 months later) | |
| The government could have made concessions over our status, but proposals including special ID cards are pushing some to consider leaving altogether | |
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| Tue 27 Jun 2017 17.12 BST | |
| Last modified on Wed 20 Sep 2017 17.34 BST | |
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| As a German, the idea of an ID card is nothing new to me. Nor is it, in itself, something I oppose: I have held a German ID card all my adult life and it’s a very handy thing to have, thank you very much. But as a German I am only too aware that the idea of an ID card – or special registration process – for a specific group of people does not bode well. | As a German, the idea of an ID card is nothing new to me. Nor is it, in itself, something I oppose: I have held a German ID card all my adult life and it’s a very handy thing to have, thank you very much. But as a German I am only too aware that the idea of an ID card – or special registration process – for a specific group of people does not bode well. |
| Overstretching the case? I don’t think so. For it is exactly that – a select registration, a special ID register – that lies at the heart of the UK government’s proposal designed to enable “settled status” for EU nationals in the UK. | Overstretching the case? I don’t think so. For it is exactly that – a select registration, a special ID register – that lies at the heart of the UK government’s proposal designed to enable “settled status” for EU nationals in the UK. |
| As with so many things the devil is in the detail – or rather, the lack thereof. On first consideration “settled status” sounds a sensible plan, but how is it meant to work? Vague at best, the government’s proposal is certain only in the continued uncertainty it has led to among EU nationals. A Home Office email sent shortly after the government’s proposal had been presented failed to clarify the situation, instead simply noting that “we expect the new application system [for a residence document] to be up and running in 2018”. | As with so many things the devil is in the detail – or rather, the lack thereof. On first consideration “settled status” sounds a sensible plan, but how is it meant to work? Vague at best, the government’s proposal is certain only in the continued uncertainty it has led to among EU nationals. A Home Office email sent shortly after the government’s proposal had been presented failed to clarify the situation, instead simply noting that “we expect the new application system [for a residence document] to be up and running in 2018”. |
| With another year of limbo looming, questions on who has to prove what, and how, race through the minds of millions. Presumably the onus will be on us, EU nationals whose spirits are long since overburdened by the weight of “not knowing”, as well as by the administrative burden of a decision we had no say in ourselves. | With another year of limbo looming, questions on who has to prove what, and how, race through the minds of millions. Presumably the onus will be on us, EU nationals whose spirits are long since overburdened by the weight of “not knowing”, as well as by the administrative burden of a decision we had no say in ourselves. |
| On social media the Brexit trolls are back in numbers I have not seen since the referendum campaign | On social media the Brexit trolls are back in numbers I have not seen since the referendum campaign |
| For those who chose to pursue the existing process – remember that by-now-infamous 85-page form? – the government’s proposal is a direct slap in the face, as registration under the new process is still required. Easy concessions might have been made here. They were not. Thrown under the bus. Yet again. | For those who chose to pursue the existing process – remember that by-now-infamous 85-page form? – the government’s proposal is a direct slap in the face, as registration under the new process is still required. Easy concessions might have been made here. They were not. Thrown under the bus. Yet again. |
| So what should have been the resolution to a year of limbo and fear, even mental health problems for some, has not turned out to be the mechanism of relief that millions of us had hoped for. We are a year older, but not wiser – and certainly not more welcome. | So what should have been the resolution to a year of limbo and fear, even mental health problems for some, has not turned out to be the mechanism of relief that millions of us had hoped for. We are a year older, but not wiser – and certainly not more welcome. |
| On social media the Brexit trolls are back in numbers I have not seen since the referendum campaign. Dare to express concerns over Brexit, our status or the future, and you find yourself accused of “smearing” the UK people, my thoughts apparently “vomit-inducing”. | On social media the Brexit trolls are back in numbers I have not seen since the referendum campaign. Dare to express concerns over Brexit, our status or the future, and you find yourself accused of “smearing” the UK people, my thoughts apparently “vomit-inducing”. |
| So there we are: a year on from the Brexit vote, I find myself at another watershed moment – the first was only little more than a year ago. And it tells me that all of this is a matter of identification indeed: whether EU nationals like me who have made a home in the UK, who contribute to life here every day, still identify with this country. Or whether Brexit, and the continuing limbo in which we find ourselves, has forever severed the close bond all of us felt with the UK. | So there we are: a year on from the Brexit vote, I find myself at another watershed moment – the first was only little more than a year ago. And it tells me that all of this is a matter of identification indeed: whether EU nationals like me who have made a home in the UK, who contribute to life here every day, still identify with this country. Or whether Brexit, and the continuing limbo in which we find ourselves, has forever severed the close bond all of us felt with the UK. |
| Time will tell. In fact, as evidence starts to show us a year on, it already is. | Time will tell. In fact, as evidence starts to show us a year on, it already is. |
| Brexit | |
| Opinion | |
| European Union | |
| Foreign policy | |
| Article 50 | |
| Immigration and asylum | |
| Theresa May | |
| comment | |
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