How Scots EU citizens are approaching Brexit uncertainty

As “Brexit Day” continues to approach, some are now wondering if Scotland is still really home for all. But tonight that’s forgotten. Inside the ceilidh band is striking up another number – the Gay Gordons – and men, women and children from 12 countries – Palestine, Iran, Romania, Poland, Pakistan, and Scotland among them – scrabble to find partners. “And a one, two, three, turn, back, two, three,” bellows the caller as they twist and birl.

The Burns’ Night celebration in Scotland’s most diverse area is being put on by Govanhill Community Development Trust’s Community Conversations project, which has aimed to bring together people from different nationalities living cheek-by- jowl.

The area is home to Irish, Asian and Roma migrants – and many more. There are almost 50 languages spoken here.

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It’s also a deprived community with one of the highest levels of child poverty in Scotland. Life expectancy is low. There have been community tensions on the issue of immigration.

In the debate, though, it’s often forgotten is how many of Govanhill’s residents are EU citizens. Rebeca Lapadat, who arrived three years ago and got involved with the Community Conversations project to practice her English, is one of them.

“I came here for better opportunities,” she says. Her children – 6, nearly 4 and 2 – go to local schools and nurseries and are thriving. “Glasgow has opened its arms to me much more than Romania,” she says. Persecution of the Roma is a daily reality in her home country.

But she seems unsure about Brexit – of what she has to do now and what it will mean for the future. She smiles, shakes her head and is pulled up to join the dancing.

Her lack of clarity is typical according to Cosmina Neacsu, a local housing association worker from Romania who says she is seeing people on a daily basis worried about how Brexit will affect them.

Those who’ve been here continuously for five years can apply for settled status, but others must apply for pre-settled status, which can be revoked. The fees may have been waved but for this community there are concerns about the need to apply online and in English.

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“There is a lot of uncertainty,” says Neacsu. “People are very worried and there are a lot of rumours in the community. People still feel they may literally be asked to leave. I don’t blame people for feeling like that because its a community that has been persecuted for centuries.”

Neacsu herself left Romania in 2005 for Portugal before moving to Scotland in 2012, but admits that her sense of security here has been affected in recent months.

“My boyfriend is Scottish and he and his family always say they don’t think of me as Romanian. I suppose I’ve integrated so well that they don’t understand that I feel that I may have to leave. I suppose I worry that one day it won’t matter how much I’ve contributed so far, whether that’s to HMRC or to the community. At the end of the day, I am an immigrant.”

She is planning to take pay slips on her approaching holiday, as she fears questions about her right to be in the UK and is worried about a further trip outside the EU after Brexit. She does not trust this system. Her worries are echoed by Sylvie – who asked the Sunday National not to use her second name. Originally from France, she’s lived in Scotland for decades but she worries that significant time off just before retirement due to bowel cancer may affect her work history when she applies for settled status.

“Perhaps I am worrying for nothing?” she says. “Who knows? But that in itself is a concern.”

Her fears may be far from irrational. Many point out many EU citizens are already facing discrimination.

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MPs from a number of constituencies have raised concerns that EU nationals are being told they don’t qualify for Universal Credit on the basis that they have no right to reside, despite many presenting evidence to the contrary.

Alison Thewliss, MP for Glasgow Central, says a number of her EU constituents have been refused benefits. “Knowing what we do about the UK Government’s treatment of the likes of the Windrush generation, and highly skilled migrants, I fear that this latest trend is an extension of the hostile environment to EU nationals,” she says.

“I have written to the Prime Minister to ask that this issue be looked into urgently. She previously stated that EU citizens will continue to be able to access in-country benefits and services, however, it seems that many are already being denied their rights”.

Freedom of movement, too, is a already a concern. Kate Alexander, director of Scottish Detainee Visitors, claims that there has been a growing number of EU citizens held in

Dungavel Immigration Detention Centre. Under UK rules they could include those convicted of criminal convictions – sometimes minor – or those from EEA countries found not considered to be seeking work. In 2017 5301 EU citizens were deported from the UK, a 20% rise from the previous year.

There are worries too about the rise of racism faced by EU citizens following the Brexit vote. In May last year, Professor Tendayi Achiume – the UN special rapporteur on racism – claimed Brexit had contributed to an environment of increased racial discrimination and intolerance.

Melina Valdelievre – a French woman of colour teaching in Scotland – has a more nuanced take. She doesn’t feel her “French identity” is under attack, she says. “However, my identity as a woman of colour of Indian descent is definitely more at risk. The rise in hostility towards migrants of colour and refugees (as in the UKIP posters) is more likely to affect me more directly because I have brown skin.

“Still, my French passport makes it a lot easier for me to work in the UK compared to the increasingly difficult conditions required for non-Western migrants. For example, I do not have to deal with the stress of finding a job that pays over £35,000 per year within six months before eviction, as was the case for my Indonesian and my Pakistani friends.”

And the hostile immigration rules – and rhetoric of the hostile environment – have hit home in the context of Brexit.

There are the families with links to Scotland, such as the Brains – an Australian couple living in the Highlands, who had to fight for their right to stay after a post-study work visa scheme was cancelled. There is UK citizen Tony Duffy, a self-employed plasterer from Edinburgh whose American wife Julianna Colaianni was refused a visa.

READ MORE: American wife of Edinburgh man refused visa to stay in Scotland

Then earlier this month elderly Iranian couple – Mozaffar Saberi, 83, and Rezvan Habibimarand, 73 (pictured below) – who bought their Edinburgh flat in the late 1970s and care for their autistic grandson – were told they could be deported.

To date over 100,000 people have signed a petition, calling from them to be allowed to stay. Their lawyer John Vassiliou is disappointed appeals to Home Secretary Savid Javid have not yet paid off. “The couple themselves are exhausted, they are stressed and upset, as are their family, but they are all rallying around them,” he says.

In his caseload they are far from unique. “This happens regularly to be honest,” he says. “It is now at a point where when people come to ask me if I can help them to bring their parents over my answer is usually no, I don’t want to get their hopes up or waste their money. This case has so many facets that are worthy of a compassionate response. Yet if it doesn’t elicit one I don’t know what will.

“The immigration rules were tightened considerably in 2012. Since then it has been almost impossible for British citizens to bring their adult dependent relatives to the UK.

“In this case, if the clients had made their initial application a year earlier it might have been easier. Often people’s hopes are pinned on you as an immigration lawyer but there is only so much we can do.”

The whole system, he claims, is unfit for purpose. “It needs to be redesigned from the ground up. Everyone should be able to understand and access the law in a simple, understandable, and easily accessible format, but even judges, immigration lawyers and Home Offices case workers are struggling. It’s a mess.”

It’s into this “mess” that EU citizens must put their faith.

Back in Govanhill, dancers from around the world form two neat rows for a Virginia Reel. “Forward, two three, clap, clap, back, two, three, clap clap”. The dancers do-si-do their partners, peel off and squeeze through the arches made by the arms of the end couple, held high, doing their best to follow the rules of the dance. They can only hope that will be enough – both on and off the dance floor.