In Brexit aftermath, some young Brits consider moving abroad

The United Kingdom’s historic vote last week to leave the European Union prompted a social media storm of celebration, sadness and regret, with several British celebrities and average citizens alike mourning the decision that — despite standing to have the biggest impact on Britain’s youth — was largely backed by older voters.

According to a survey by the U.K.-based Internet polling firm YouGov, the “leave” campaign was backed by 61 percent of voters age 65 and over, while 75 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 24 cast their ballots in support of remaining part of the EU.

Less than a week later, many young people throughout the U.K. are still grappling with the potential implications of Brexit. Yahoo News spoke to three disappointed young Brits about why they voted to stay, their concerns about a future outside the EU and their potential plans to relocate.

Jamie McGee, 31

Jamie McGee went to bed Thursday night feeling hopeful. For the past two months, the referendum vote over whether the U.K. should remain a part of the EU had become a leading topic of conversation among his friends. As polls closed, McGee scrolled through his Facebook feed full of posts from friends who, like him, had cast their ballots to remain.

“For the first time in any election, I knew all my friends were engaged and voting,” he says.

Plus, the pound-to-dollar exchange rate — which he’s been keeping a close eye on ahead of his honeymoon to the United States this September — was the highest it had been in a while.

By the time he woke up Friday morning, the “leave” movement had declared victory, and the pound’s value had plunged to a 30-year low. McGee says he was filled with a mix of “shock, sadness and frustration.”

“I’m sad for the younger generation,” he says. “I spent my 20s traveling all over Europe. My sister spent months living in Germany with my cousins. I have friends who didn’t have a lot going on in England, but moved to European cities and are now doing great. They would probably never emigrate if they had to fill out the paperwork, but thanks to the freedom of movement, they are now doing happy and striving in these new cities!”

McGee, who has lived in Manchester since 2004, is a native of Derry, a city in Northern Ireland which, unlike the Republic of Ireland, is a part of the U.K. Thanks to McGee’s Irish passport, however, he’ll be able to remain a member of the European Union. Not all of his British friends are as lucky.

“In fact, many of my English friends are looking at their grandparents’ lineage to see if they can apply for an Irish passport for this reason,” McGee says. The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs reported Friday that it was seeing “an unusually high number of people in Northern Ireland seeking Irish passport applications” in the wake of the Brexit vote.

Like McGee — and the majority of Northern Ireland — he says his three sisters all voted to remain in the EU. Though McGee says he and his siblings generally agree on politics, it was the first time his 28-year-old sister had voted on anything.

“We know how much better off we have been in Europe,” he says.

McGee says he has not talked to his parents or grandparents about the referendum beyond urging them to vote. Still, he says, “I can’t help but feel the only deciding point for the older generation is immigration and false promises of NHS [National Health Service] spending.”

Even with his EU membership intact, McGee isn’t sure he wants to stay in the U.K. after this vote.

“I do not trust this government,” he says. “I worry that they have their own agenda, and it is based on greed and racism.”

He says he’s discussed moving to the United States with his fiancé, who is American, but they’ve agreed not to make any plans until after the presidential election.

“I don’t want to live anywhere that elects Donald Trump,” he says.

Emma Clarke, 26

Though most of the United Kingdom was fast asleep when the results of last week’s referendum vote were finally announced, 26-year-old Emma Clarke and her partner were wide awake.

“We couldn’t sleep,” Clarke told Yahoo News. So they stayed up to watch the historic news unfold in real time.

“I just felt absolutely gutted,” she says, adding that while “part of me was shocked … another part wasn’t.”

Clarke, who is originally from Manchester, has lived in the West Yorkshire city of Leeds since she moved there for university in 2008. She is now a business consultant at an international software company, and the mother of a 4-month-old girl.

In the months leading up to the vote, Clarke says she was worried that not enough of her peers were engaged in the issue, and feared that if young people didn’t turn out to vote, the Brexit would prevail.

“A few of my friends were openly confused about how to vote due to lack of facts being reported in the media, and posted asking for people to share information they had gathered to help them decide,” she says.

Google Trends reported Friday that the top searched question by U.K. users in the previous 24 hours was “What does it mean to leave the EU?”

“What is the EU?” came in second place.

Still, as the big day drew closer, Clarke says her conversations with friends in person and on social media gave her hope that “‘remain’ could have a chance.”

But now, “I genuinely believe that people did not vote for this decision based on facts,” she says, pointing to the admission by U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage on Friday that one of the “leave” campaign’s central pledges — that exiting the EU would free up £350 million a week for the National Health Service — was “a mistake.”

In the aftermath of the vote, several Brexit backers said they regretted their decision.

The vote also caused a great divide within Clarke’s own family, with the sides being drawn along generational lines: Clarke says she and her sister were united in support of remaining, while her dad and grandfather both voted to leave.

“Both my sister and myself cannot discuss politics with my dad without it turning into a heated debate,” she says. “My granddad also voted to leave, saying he had done it to protect our future, which is particularly gut-wrenching. His main reason was immigration, which is crazy seeing as he spent most of his younger life as an immigrant in South Africa.”

While her partner’s parents also voted to leave, Clarke says her mother claims to have switched sides at the last minute to vote “remain” — though she’s skeptical about whether this is true or simply her mom’s “voter’s remorse” talking.

“I hope it is genuine,” she says.

As a mother, it’s perhaps this stark generational divide over the issue that baffles Clarke the most.

“I find this so bizarre as I sit and look at my daughter feeling that I would do anything for her, and knowing that on the whole, it was our parents who voted for this against our pleas not to,” she says.

In fact, a big part of Clarke’s decision to vote “remain” was influenced by her daughter, and the potential impact a Brexit could have on her future.

“There have been public sector cuts all over due to our current government, and without EU guidance, I fear that this will get worse,” she says. “It makes me concerned for the schooling my little girl will receive and the health care that she will have available to her.”

Clarke also worries about what leaving the EU will mean for her job as a consultant, which often requires her to travel throughout Europe.

“I need to be able to work easily in any European country,” she says. “For me, this is not just about how it will affect us as tourists to travel around Europe, but it would make my job harder to do.”

Clarke says she has several friends who had already been planning moves to countries like Canada, Australia and Sweden — “all of which have made this choice based on the decisions of this government and the outcome of this vote.” Now she’s considering doing the same.

“There is a real feeling of uncertainty in our household,” she says. “We really don’t know how bad this could be for us just yet.”

Adam Wishart-Taylor, 30

Like McGee, Adam Wishart-Taylor went to sleep on Thursday night confident of a “remain” victory. Instead, he says, “I awoke to find out the result and was immediately horrified.”

Originally from Lancashire, a mostly rural county on England’s northwest coast, Wishart Taylor works part-time as a recruiter at a music college in Leeds and the rest of the time as a tour manager and musician.

“Being a touring musician is what concerns me most,” he says of leaving the EU. “The strong possibility of having to gain visas to enter Europe for touring is going to become expensive and discouraging. The threat to employment is another major concern.”

Like many of his peers, Wishart-Taylor’s parents voted in favor of leaving — a decision he believes was made based on misinformation and “false promises.”

“We have already seen in the short time since the result, that “leave” campaigners are denying the facts they based their entire campaigns on, such as the £350 million we will no longer pay to Europe going back to the NHS,” he says. “It’s quite frankly disgusting now that they have won that they finally reveal the truth of it.”

The musician has long had his sights set on leaving the U.K. for New York City, and had been planning to move within the next 10 years or so. Now, though, Wishart-Taylor says he’ll probably be ready to cross the pond a lot sooner. In the meantime, he says, “I am secretly hoping for a second Scottish independence referendum so they can stay in Europe and I can claim citizenship thanks to my grandparents.”

Overall, Wishart-Taylor says he hopes the rest of the world understands how disappointed he and so many of his peers are over this decision.

“The youth of Britain wished to remain, as it is us who are the future generations that other countries shall be dealing with,” he says. “It is such a sad time for a country usually so well-recognized for its strength and unity. To now see it broken and divided, these are very dark days ahead for us, I can assure you.”

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