‘Brexit’ Vote Worries European Up-and-Comers Lured to Britain

As a trading partner, why not? It goes without saying it will be on EU terms, in or out (so much for "sovereignty ") Britain has only weakened the EU ever since it joined, politically, economically and militarily.
Brexit please, and the sooner the better.

I moved to England as a child when my father was called to work in a large international scientific project, which attracted takented scientists and engineers from all over the world. This project, like many others, was fully financed by the EU.

I remember England in the early '80s - a dull, dark and depressed country, wary and suspicious of foreigners such as ourselves. I also remember the incredible change, as trade, scientific research and free movement of people to and from the EU opened up this country and allowed its economy to emerge from a long slide into obsolescence and irrelevance that had been going on since the end of WWII.

Now it appears that many britons have a short memory or are simply deluded about a sense of global relevance that their country simply doesn't have anymore - and certainly it will not gain as a stand-alone, smsll island disconnected from the global trade networks.

Like it or not, britons must come to terms with the fact that memership in the EU had been instrumental in Britain's economic success of the past several decades, and no amount of anti-immigrant populism or illusions about a long gone past of power and influence is ever going tovchange the truth.

Sure the EU has many flaws, but walking away is not a viable alternative. Not even for "Great" Britain.

European, deal with it, I am by voting out. I am not alone in not wanting to be part of a United States of Europe, which is where the EU appears to be heading. I am already a citizen of a country, I am British.

No thanks to the NYT for playing into the "UK as the invaded country".
The article makes no mention of the more than 1 million Britons living in the EU, as if immigration was a one way street. Many of these Britons have no voice in the Brexit referendum. What will happen to them?

For some reason, every time I read an article about the Brexit, the old saying about cutting off one's nose comes to mind. "Little Englanders" comes to mind too: the implicit racism and xenophobia in those Brits who want a smaller, more homogenous Britain. A Brexit will bring about a "littler" UK: a UK that will no longer be able to punch above its weight on the world stage without the backdrop the EU provides it, as well as increasing disinterest the by the US in maintain the "special relationship." As for those commenters deriding the selfish interests of those quoted in the article, isn't better economic conditions and financial gain what drives many immigrants to leave their home countries, to find a better life that begins first and foremost with better economic opportunity? Isn't it the hard work and sacrifice to better one's economic prospects that drives economic growth that benefits a regional or national economy?

According to the latest figures we have had roughly the equivalent of the population of the Republic of Ireland settle the the UK, or mainly England as it happens, in the last 15 years. Net figures show about 50,000 more people than the population of Luxembourg is arriving every year with about half that number leaving. The problem is that a Republic of Ireland's worth of new infrastructure hasn't been built to accommodate this new population, if there was somewhere to actually put it.

It's not a question of not liking foreigners, it is the numbers of people coming and the unwillingness of those who benefit most for mass immigration, big business, to cover the true cost of it.

Germany had more migrants from fellow EU-countries in recent years than Britain and they usually blend in without any problem. We, like every highly developed country, need immigration of the willing and able. So if Britain decides to drift into its not so splendid isolation, we will be welcoming to those, who want to improve their and our living standard. The discussion about Brexit alone is already hurting Britain.

The title of the article says it all: Britons themselves are at the bottom of the list of EU concerns. The EUI is an undemocratic, unresponsive, increasingly dictatorial bureaucracy, conceived as a Franco-German project, and that Germany, whether anyone admits it publicly or not, is now leading.

The EU has bungled everything: the eurozone, Greece, the migrant crisis, that noxious deal with Turkey when it realised the rest of Europe didn't want to be inundated with the entire Middle East and North Africa, and now the EU is negotiating with Al Bashar in the Sudan who is wanted for war crimes in Darfur, setting up payments up to keep African migrants from following the rest of the floods to Europe.

Up-and Comers-worried about their dreams? Greenpeace released documents 2 weeks ago showing that the EU Commission, behind closed doors, was negotiating with TTIP representatives in areas the EU publicly swore were "sacrosanct".

The EU is not just about "young people's dreams". There are other people, other segments of society, issues of sovereignty, etc., at stake.

Jeremy Corbyn, current leader of the Labour Party, has been Eurosceptic for decades, for good reasons. Suddenly he went from backbencher to frontbencher, and, anxious to back a winning horse after electoral disappointments, threw his lot in with REMAIN, talking about a "reformed" Europe.

The EU doesn't go in for reform, as he knows. The British are being had-get out while you can. The sky won't fall.

And the U.K. Will be worse off from the absence of energetic and motivated immigrants fir which other countries would die. As you know Europeans are suffering from a sterility epidemic that apparently makes them not willing or able to have children.

I ma English I will be voting for BREXIT...many Brits want our borders to be regulated by us and us alone. We do not want the EU telling us who we have to take into our country.

The fact that the referendum has offended Londoners from other European countries is to be truthful ....who cares.

Carry on ripping your leaflets up Mr Macias...it is up to us Brits what way will will vote..if you do not like it then move.

AS for we think we are our own continent so what?..and you saying we are European deal with it...in just a matter of weeks we may not be.

It is the loss of sovereignty more than anything else which is pushing Brexit. To be a member of the EU means you lose control over your legal system whose laws can be overruled by a court in Strassbourg. We saw how this country has blocked legitimate laws which would permit the deportation of Jihadists,

Also there is the threat that Merkel will force UK to take illegal migrants who have flooded the EU from the Middle East and Africa. The laws says they are exempt, but we all know that Merkel can change laws without anyone's approval -- look how she abolished Schengetn to let migrants come to Germany and now wishes to disperse them to other countries or fine them if they refuse to take migrants. What sane country wouldn't want to escape Merkel and German overlordship.

I think the issues of sovereignty and immigration are the chief drivers of a desire for Brexit and I hope that the UK has the good sense to vote for LEAVE and get out from under the rules of Brussels and Merkel

Just to add to previous comments - the irony (in regards to the citizens from other EU countries mentioned in this article) is that permanent residents in the UK from the Commonwealth (i.e. Canada, Australia, South Africa, etc) as well as citizens from the Republic of Ireland (residents in the UK) may vote in the referendum. I do not know why this is the case.
Having lived also in Germany, I met many UK citizens there who were benefiting from the freedom of movement that is part of the EU. The move was driven, at least initially, by economic factors and eventually if people stayed long term there were other factors that played a significant role (marriage, friends, links to the community, etc).
It is very true that many EU citizens move to London but there is also a large movement of UK citizens to other parts of the EU. It is a 2 way street. It would be interesting to find out what the numbers are.

This EU referendum has suddenly rendered the British nationality useful among the many EU-citizens living there. The main motivation for foreigners to come to England is to learn English. The same case applies to most EU citizens. The only difference is that those from Western Europe have better economic opportunities at home than those from Eastern and Southern Europe, which see a brain-drain. Now people from these areas are worried, because wages and standard of living are still low at home, and they have no desire to return and help build the domestic economy.
Hundreds of thousands of Britons flock to economic powerhouses in Europe, and make a better living there than at home. Those who have been living overseas for longer than 15 years, aren't allowed to have a say on their country's EU membership, because of an alleged "weakening of ties" with their motherland. Non-British Londoners aren't allowed to vote although many of them have been living there for years or decades.
Many Britons complain about being patronised by foreign heads-of-state and international institutions to stay in the EU. Defiant, they might vote to leave.

Last September we visited the UK for the first time in eight years. I was astonished at the number of East Europeans working front office and service jobs in hotels. My first thought--everyone is so white.

I've always experienced (and appreciated) Britain as a multi-racial environment. It left me wondering if Brits of color are being aced out of entry level jobs by young Poles, Czechs, etc. Disturbing.

I suspect the number of Europeans who have settled in England is at least less but more likely dwarfed by the number of Muslim immigrants from all the former colonies or protectorates of England. This huge influx is the real burr under the skin of most Britons. Every taxi drive we have taken on multiple trips to the UK always has a long tirade by the driver recounting the large number of middle eastern people on public welfare.

It will be very interesting to see how the new Muslim mayor deals with this very incendiary issue.

This should have been part of the discussion in this article.

I am going to vote to leave the EU because my country doesn't owe the world a living. Maybe the people who are born overseas should respect our independence and the fact that there is not unlimited space.

Immigration rights are at the heart of the Brexit referendum. Does London determine Britain's immigration laws or does Brussels? Merkel has demonstrated that Germany can make decisions without EU consensus effecting all of Europe. With the tens of millions of refugees teeming at the defended borders of Europe, Britain and Ireland may be very thankful they ARE islands rather than part of the European mainland.

Several posters criticize migrants who base their migration on financial opportunity. But doesn't British law define the opportunity to migrate based solely on economic criteris, e.g. Masters level education and jobs paying a certain wage? The law is not interested if migrants want to adopt British culture and citizenship; it's neural on the subject. Unless you want to have citizenship-level migrant laws, there is no other way to have both a vibrant, international and diversified economy and having a highly-restrictive immigration policy. It can't work in Europe for many reasons but a primary one is that most European countries, with some exceptions, have smaller than replacement population birth rates. UKs birth rate is bucking the trend because of migrants; they're the ones having the babies. The only way to immediately deal with that situation without spending more money is to liberalize immigration, or higher taxes to spend on native populations to encourage higher birth rates, or tax migrants at a slightly higher rate which risks the ire of the employers. You can't have your cake and eat it too is the lesson learned. On another nore: I can't help that this is in some forms the long-term consequence of imperialism and colonialian. Ever notice that a good number ofor immigrants to Europe come from former colonial possessions? Perhaps it's just the natural consequence of such policies....

By and large, Brexit supporters don't live in London. British Londoners (those who remain) are generally comfortable with the Europeans in their midst. Brexit supporters tend to live in smaller, whiter places. They see Polish shops on their high streets and overcrowded GP surgeries and schools. I don't support Brexit myself as the economic consequences would be too severe, but Brexit supporters generally don't dislike Europeans, they just don't want so many of them to come live here.

The fact that voting to exit the union would propel countless immigrants to contemplate leaving Britain should make voting "to exit" a no-brainer. How unfortunate that we don't have the opportunity to have such a vote.

The EU is interesting. How many years did it take many here to stop referring to themselves as New Yorkers or Georgians and consider themselves Americans (Texans have not, but most of the rest of us have). It took a civil war and a few centuries of assimilation.

The EU must be a hundred times more difficult. How many years will it be before folks from England and Spain think of themselves as Europeans first? Perhaps never. The benefits of being unified are obvious, but at best Europe will be a confederation and not a union--it is just not possible to give-up an identify after two thousand years, and the language and cultural differences.

They should go back to the drawing board and write-up articles of confederation---settle for financial and organizational standardization without trying to ignore the cultural differences. It is 20 decades too late for that.

"The British speak as if they’re their own continent, floating in the middle of the sea,” he added. “You’re European. Deal with it."

This strikes me as excessively arrogant by the Spaniard.

The British are their own *nation* 'floating in the sea' - and yes, they have every right to control their borders.

As a citizen of Spain, you have absolutely no right to vote in their referendums or elections.

It is disturbing that none of the individuals quoted are concerned about living in the UK for the rights and freedoms it might offer and the British way of life. Instead, they are focused on their own financial gain. And that reflects the current problem with immigration in the United States as well. Immigrants are no longer interested in coming to this country to participate and uphold our values and hopes of freedom and democracy. Unlike previous generations of immigrants, they come to exploit and drain our resources with a lot of money sent abroad instead of reinvesting it locally. They are not interested in integration. Instead they demand we submit to the values of their cultures that are contradictory to our goals of equality. Perhaps the Brits are fed up with these demands and abuse of their welcome and seek an immediate solution to the threat to their culture and many gains in the search for freedom.

One only has to live in London to realize just how many Europeans live and work here; yes, there are many who are not highly skilled, but there are even more who have been coming to London for decades from all of Europe to take advantage of the world famous universities, incredible companies etc. The UK and London in particular has been a popular hub for Europeans even before the most recent crisis and it would be unfair to label all the doctors, scientists, bankers, professors, artists, lawyers and business owners as victims of the failing economy of their countries who have had to immigrate because of dead-end prospects in their home countries.

Though there are many of the latter category, as well, describing Europeans living in London as primarily economic crisis immigrants misses the point of their decision to actively contribute to London's economy and intellectually as well as business power. This is the reason why many European Londoners are offended by the referendum: they chose to come to the city because of the opportunities they had to contribute to its status as a metropolis, and not to be saved by their lack of opportunity.

This article doesn't use any of these people as their sources. Why? Europeans themselves have had enough of being portrayed as victims and should command more respect. How about some more thorough research on immigration law and examples of any approximate precedents instead of just presenting a handful of random people and their feelings?