For Zoe Adams Green ‘The EU was my oyster’. Joining Michaela down the line from Italy, she describes her love affair with Europe, and her experiences moving around the EU seeking work and latterly starting a family, opportunities that will be out of reach for future generations of British citizens once they lose their rights to Freedom of Movement.  As a campaigner for citizens’ rights through her work for British in Europe, she explains the potential far-reaching consequences of Brexit for the British citizens who have made their homes and lives in the EU-27. 

Zoe Adams Green is a translator and a member of British in Europe’s steering group. You can find out more about British in Europe and their legal advocacy work on their website https://britishineurope.org   

British migration to the Spanish coastline is only part of the story about British emigration to Spain. In this episode Michaela is joined down the line by Michael Harris, British in Europe steering committee member, founder of Eurocitizens, who has been living in Madrid for close to 40 years. He shares his migration story, from fleeing Thatcher’s Britain to living in Spain in the 1980s, the conditions and circumstances which shaped this. He draws out his understanding of what it means to be European and how this overlaps with other identities, and the importance of campaigning for and defending the rights of European citizens.

A lesser known story of British migration to the EU is how it interplays with social mobility. In this episode, Michaela is joined by Fiona Godfrey, co-chair of British in Europe, a resident of Luxembourg to bust the myth that British citizens living in Europe are wealthy and originate in the south England. They discuss her migration biography from Barnsley to Luxembourg, an intimate family history of the precariousness of citizenship rights, and the multiple challenges of advocating for the rights of British citizens living in the EU.