A SCOTTISH family living in Germany have told of their heartbreak at having to cancel plans for their dream home because of uncertainties they face over Brexit.
Laura and Chris Muncie have been working and living in Germany for five years and live near Frankfurt with their son John, who is now two, and who was born there. But they do not yet meet the criteria for German citizenship.
She is an English teacher while Chris works for a financial services company and their story is a stark reversal of the more common tales about EU citizens uncertain about their futures here.
They reserved a plot of land for their new home 18 months ago, but then the reality of Brexit began to bite.
Laura told The National: “We have been saving for years. We reserved the land for the house over a year ago and we were to be at number 11. My work as a freelance English teacher in Frankfurt is dependent on current EU agreements on free movement and I don’t require a visa or any other papers to work. The same goes for Chris.
“Once Brexit happened we had to think about what could happen and there was even talk at my husband’s work about whether he would relocate back to the UK – and the suggestion was London, which didn’t appeal.
“Our son was born here but we’ve only been here for five years and are not eligible for citizenship, and we felt we would wait and see what happens. But the risk of building a house was too high. The building work hadn’t started and it would be a year before the house was finished, but if there was still uncertainty about our work it was too high a risk. We didn’t like the idea of having to sell our house in a few years and perhaps losing money we had invested in it.”
Laura, who’s originally from Hamilton, and Chris, from Spean Bridge, told the (Still) Yes Highland website about their dismay at Brexit and their difficulties have since been picked up by German media.
“We carefully considered if we wanted to discuss our situation publicly but when we saw how Westminster was mismanaging things and read extensively about Brexit I felt compelled to try to help,” said Laura.
“We have EU national friends living in Scotland including my son’s godmother, who is Hungarian, and we wanted to speak up for them as well as ourselves and put Scotland forward to the German press.
“We want to help our country, Scotland, because no matter how far you travel there is something about Scotland that never leaves you.
Laura, 38, had previously supported Scotland staying in the UK, but she said Brexit had opened her eyes: “For me, one of the most difficult moments was watching Nigel Farage declare Brexit as a win for the ordinary person and a vote against the elitists and multinationals.
“It used to be people like me and my husband were considered ‘hard-working’ people, not elitists. Yet the reality is that it will be ordinary folk like us who will be impacted by Brexit.”
She said the UK had voted for a blank piece of paper that was Brexit. There had been sparse coverage in UK media of Scotland’s situation, but German papers like Bild had even run polls suggesting that over 90 per cent of people favoured an independent Scotland in the EU.
“Until Brexit many Germans did not realise Scotland was a country, sounds funny but it’s true. Brexit made Scotland more visible and the coverage we read here of the possibility of an independent Scotland in the EU is positive.”
Laura said there had been pro-indy-Scotland marches and meetings in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, and that our First Minister was almost revered: “They love Nicola Sturgeon over here. People see her as an inspirational leader, a modern independent woman who has eclipsed politicians at Westminster.”
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