Survey Shows Most British Expats Will Vote to Stay in the EU

Survey Shows Most British Expats Will Vote to Stay in the EU

According a survey by The Local most British expats living in Spain and Europe have plans to vote for Britain to stay in the European Union at the upcoming referendum.

Will it be better the devil you know ?

The newspaper surveyed over 2,700 British people living throughout Europe and 67% of them, rather unsurprisingly, said they plan to vote “stay”. 28% of those polled were in favour of leaving the Union with the other 5% still being undecided about which way they’ll vote.

The Chief Campaign spokesman for Britain staying in the EU said the survey was a clear sign that Brits abroad wanted to stay in Europe. The Local also interviewed expats and one of them expressed concern about the potentially negative impact the Brexit would have financially.

Maura Hillen, the expat in question, feels that the decision is tougher for Brits who are living abroad. The decision will heavily impact expats. She feels that people in the UK will approach it differently but there is a lot more risk for expats.

One of the major concerns of the Brexit is the impact it would have on property owners. While there may not be much impact felt by people who already own property, it could become much more difficult for these non-UK citizens to buy a new home.

A spokesman for Better Off Out, a pro-Brexit campaign, said that they had not contacted expats directly yet. They said simply that they are focusing their efforts on every voter and wish that people who vote will see the benefits for the UK.

Hillen also spoke about how ironic the debate in Spain is, as many of the expats in favour of exiting the EU are concerned about immigration and cost of living in Spain. It’s ironic because they themselves are immigrants who benefited from the ability to travel freely through the EU .

The more interesting thing to note is that of the 2,700 expats that were polled by The Local, only 673 of them are currently eligible to vote. Most them have been living abroad for more than 15 years and can no longer vote, or are unregistered.

If the out vote wins then expats who are residents in Spain will be fine as the only long term difference will be a little more paperwork.