Introduction
It is the 23rd of June 2016 and everyone, in the United Kingdom and the whole of the European Union, is anxiously waiting for the results of the all-important referendum concerning the future of the United Kingdom and their ties to the European Union. Will they stay in the European Union or will they leave the European Union? With a slight majority, 52 %, the United Kingdom will be leaving the European Union in March of the year 2019. After this important vote, with the results only binding because of a promise, the term “Brexit” will not leave the media for the following years. With the factual Brexit almost here, the talk about the Brexit and its consequences is growing bigger than ever. The speculations about the future of the United Kingdom and of the European Union are growing and ever changing. However, this will not be the focus of this essay. This essay will look to how the looming Brexit has impacted the United Kingdom and the European Union, specifically the present and the future of the EU-workers in the United Kingdom. The statement that has to be kept in mind during this essay is ‘’Brexit is already harming EU-workers’’. At the beginning of the essay, the legal base of the United Kingdom for the years after 2016 until the factual Brexit will be discussed. Following that, the arguments concerning the statement will be explained in order. In the conclusion, we will look back at everything that has been discussed in the previous pages and a final conclusion concerning the statement will be made.
Brexit and EU law
Before we can begin with the arguments, it is important to know what law and especially what European Union law still applies to the United Kingdom. In fact, all European Union law that applied before the Brexit vote still applies to the United Kingdom and thus, they still have to abide all EU legislation until the United Kingdom is officially out the European Union which will happen in the year 2019. The main legislations that every EU member state abides to are the Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, both known and further referred to as TEU and TFEU. Both the TEU and the TFEU are the foundations of the European Union. The TEU was the Treaty that founded the European Union and the TFEU was the updated version of the TEU so to say. The TFEU was signed in 2007 and entered into force in 2009. The Treaty focussed on making the European Union more democratic and more efficient. The Treaty clarifies which powers belong to the European Union, the Member States and which are shared (European Union, 2018). Since the United Kingdom is currently still a member of the European Union, they have to follow European Union law on discrimination, equality and all other European Union law. Since this is the first country ever wanting to leave the European Union, there is no case law. Which in turn means that the Brexit will be making history and thus will be the precedence for the future in case another country would want to leave the European Union. The process of leaving the European Union is a long one with a lot of negotiating between the United Kingdom and the European Union. The process was started with the referendum, then the formal notice of the government to the European Commission on the 29th of March 2017. This started the two-year period for negotiating of the exit deal but can be extended with the consent of all member states. With the last year full of struggles in the negotiation part of the deal, it became clear that two years are too short (Ewing, 2018).
Employment and EU-workers
Since the announcement of the results of the Brexit referendum, a lot of people are leaving the United Kingdom, scared for the consequences of the Brexit. One of the consequences of leaving the United Kingdom is that jobs become open for UK nationals. The Office of National Statistics determines that their information provides them with the fact that in the year between January 2017 and January 2018 the number of UK nationals working increased with 417.000 people and that the number of non-UK nationals from European Union countries decreased by 28.000 people.
The Office of National Statistics even mentions that this decrease of 28.000 people is the first decrease since January 2010 (Office of National Statistics, 2018). The graph illustrates the growth or decrease in non-United Kingdom nationals working in the United Kingdom from January/March 2000 till January/March 2018. As you can see in the graph and as has been described before, the first decrease in the volume of non-UK nationals working was at the beginning of the year 2018. This can have several reasons; one of which could be the fact that the actual leaving of the United Kingdom of the European Union is coming closer and closer (Office of National Statistics, 2018). A good example of the possible workforce issues in the United Kingdom are the numbers of nurses. In the graph is shown how sharp the decrease in number of new nurse registrants was in 2017. Should this course continue in this pace, then it would cause a huge shortage of nurses and thus create a very big problem which the United Kingdom will have difficulties with fixing. Not only will the nurses be a concern but there are roughly 90.000 people are at risk in the sector of social care (McKee, 2017).
Discrimination against EU-workers in the UK
When researching online if there is discrimination in the United Kingdom against EU workers, you will most likely find multiple articles of the Guardian or the Independent saying headlines like; ‘’ Europeans no need to apply’’. This is because even though discrimination is forbidden by law, European Union law specifically, there are multiple companies in the United Kingdom that have been leaked to the press for discriminating against non-UK nationals in their job descriptions. Some companies required German language skills but must be have legal right to stay in the United Kingdom and have a UK passport (Travis, 2017). As mentioned before the United Kingdom is currently still member of the European Union and thus still has to abide to European Law. In EU law discrimination is forbidden and thus the companies are violating the law (European Union, 2018). The government has started an inquiry into the allegations that were made against multiple companies. A problem, that occurs with the research that will have to occur with this issue, is that the job descriptions for example can be changed into the correct descriptions so when checked they are not violating the law anymore. It is understandable why companies would rather have UK nationals as employees, since no one knows for certain how the grounds to stay in the United Kingdom after Brexit will be.
The pound and tourism
One of the direct consequences of the vote in the year 2016 was that the stock of the pound dropped immediately after the announcement of the results. To be a little bit more accurate, the stock dropped around 10% after the vote but has since then been recovering from the drop. As result from the dropping of the pound all of people from continental Europe have been taking trips to the United Kingdom to benefit from good deals for example flight tickets. The pound dropped because of panic of not knowing how the future will turn out. In a few countries like Germany and France, the currency dropped together with the pound but recovered shortly after, but the pound is still recovering and working its way up again (Raddant, 2016). Another reason for continental Europe inhabitants to go on a vacation to the United Kingdom is a psychological one; the fact that no one knows how the future will look like; will you need a visa? Are there going to be extra costs? The general thought because of panic is ‘'let’s go before it becomes more difficult’' (Portes, 2016).
The Tourist Alliance is one of the organizations who are very busy to gather intel and to make sure that the tourism for the United Kingdom will suffer as little as possible with the upcoming factual Brexit. In the year of 2015, 36.1 million people visited the United Kingdom. And of those 36.1 million visitors 67% are from a EU country, with an average spending of 611 pounds during their visit. With this huge percentage being EU visitors, the risk and the fear of losing a lot of the tourism and its income is understandable (Sima , Brexit impacts on British Tourism, 2017). By making sure that the number of tourists will continue to be high, the United Kingdom or the Tourist Alliance is trying to preserve the jobs of many workers which still include European Union nationals.
Irish border and the future
Now for the final part of this essay, we will take a look to the future. A situation that will have a big impact on the future of the United Kingdom is the way the United Kingdom will handle the decisions concerning the Irish border. Everyone is wondering if the border will continue to be ‘soft’ or if it will become a ‘hard’ border? Up till now, the option of a hard border has not even been a possibility, in the eyes of Brexit supporters. From Theresa May herself has no intention to have a so-called ‘hard’ border. Theresa May even wrote in the letter, that triggered Article 50, that she would want ‘seamless’ or ‘frictionless’ borders (Gromley-Heenan & Aughey, 2017). The decision made for this border will impact the United Kingdom, the European Union and all of its workers. The amount of ‘softness’ the border will have, will influence the way European Union workers can work together with the United Kingdom or how easy it will become to go and work in the United Kingdom. The border will set the tone for the rest of the borders that the United Kingdom will have in the future.
Conclusion
In the previous pages a lot of information has been discussed and explained. When looking at the consequences that the results of the Brexit referendum has had in the following years, it has become clear that the Brexit has had a few good influences. For example, the fact that the number of UK nationals with a job has increased significantly more than the number of European Union workers leaving the United Kingdom. This will project confidence to the United Kingdom; they could handle the decrease in number of European Union workers by giving the jobs to their own people. But on the other side of this story, there are bad influences as well. For example, the number of stories on the discrimination of European Union workers in the United Kingdom keeps increasing and it does not seem to be a priority. Or the fact that the pound dropped after the referendum, making the money of those in the United Kingdom, UK worker or EU worker, worth less and decreasing their purchasing power. These are a few of the examples mentioned in this essay to show you how the result of the referendum and thus the upcoming Brexit has influenced the European Union workers in the United Kingdom and how it might affect them in the future if they continue down the same path. In my opinion, when keeping in mind that the statement was ‘Brexit is already harming EU workers’ and weighing the arguments against each other, the statement is correct. Even though there are positive effects that have come from the Brexit, those are not in favour of the European Union workers who are in the United Kingdom.