As a Brit in Belgium I sometimes have the sense of being a dying breed, one of the last to get off that little island before life became a whole lot harder and paperwork popped up wherever we turned. It's been one heck of a hassle since the "special treatment" UK ministers swore would make everything so easy boiled down to the standard procedures endured by all third-country nationals.
Now bearing an M-Card, I am keenly aware of benefits that I otherwise would never have noticed – my EU friends rarely sparing a thought for what challenges might come with moving just a train ride away to work in a neighbouring country. I also am finely attuned to the limits of what I can and cannot do with said M-Card, the Belgian passport being the key to unlock many privileges still withheld since the UK's formal withdrawal from the Union.
"Dying breed" might be a touch dramatic, but there's no doubt that the barriers to entry are up, entailing that the number of Brits in Belgium is down. It's a logical reality borne out in findings released today by the Brussels Expat Welcome Desk. Analysis of population data highlights a 70% drop in UK citizens arriving after the transition period – a number that historically had been around 10,000/year.
Unveiling the study last night, the helpful team behind Welcome Desk explained some of the challenges in extracting data. For one, Belgium doesn't centralise information about residents and each region has its own register (who would have thought it). As such, the results are specific to the Brussels-Capital Region. Secondly, once a Brit gains Belgian citizenship they are considered Belgian, meaning they are assimilated into national data.
All the same, concerns about either a "Brexodus" away from Belgium, or a wave of Brits making the same move as me did not come to pass. What has become clear is that those that are here tend to put down roots for the long term. All of which means that this small constituency is aging, though whether we call ourselves old Brits or old Belgians also remains to be seen.
Are you a Brit in Brussels? Do you hold an M-Card or have you graduated to full Belgian? Let @Orlando_tbt know.
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