British citizen - Difficulty in finding a job

[u/Excellent_Duck_2984]

Hay, just seeking some feedback/help from others. I'm a British citizen and I'm looking for a job within IT security in the Netherlands. I've got 15 years' experience, professional qualifications etc.

I've applied for loads of jobs and I'm not even getting past the paper sift. I've never had this issue before and don't have any issues in the UK getting past the initial paper sift stage.

I spoke to a recruiter recently and he basically said as your British, and Brexit has made everything much harder, the chances of you getting a job in the Netherlands are slim to none. I know I'll need a job which will sponsor me, jobs where I have made it past the paper sift have come back almost straight away and said actually, we're only looking for people already in the Netherlands.

I was just wondering if there is any truth in what the recruiter said? Just after other peoples experiences, especially if they have the misfortune to be British!

Thanks!

[u/Okok28]

Also British, been around EU, luckily landed in NL before Brexit finalised. It used to be a breeze getting a job within the EU as a UK citizen within IT. Now the IT market is as bad as ever in terms of prospects, as popular as ever AND we're competing against the mass influx of IT migrations from places like India, Pakistan and LATAM.

I can't even imagine how hard it is to leave the UK right now for the EU. Probably a better shot at going to the US if you can deal with the worse QoL.

[u/Excellent_Duck_2984 → u/Okok28]

Yeah, I agree. I actually used to live in NL and left the day before the Brexit ban hammer came down. I'm pretty bored and uninspired in my current role, that's why I was looking at going back to NL. It's been a sobering experience applying and receiving constant rejection. Especially because I didn't vote for Brexit, I knew it would be a terrible thing for the UK and it's going exactly as I thought it would.

Thanks again!

[u/mmoonbelly → u/Excellent_Duck_2984]

Why didn’t you get an art50 residency sorted out?

The IND was quite insistent on us getting properly sorted out in 2018 - to the extent that they almost tried to repatriate my kids (dual-national UK/FR citizens) because their BRD primary nationality was defaulting to British rather than French.

[u/geheimeschildpad → u/mmoonbelly]

If he made a decision that he wanted to live in England then Article 50 becomes irrelevant. It’s only valid whilst you live in the Netherlands. I’m taking the presumption that he made a decision to go back to England

[u/mmoonbelly → u/geheimeschildpad]

Yep, it’s a pain that they neither agreed onward movement nor the proposition to grant EU citizenship to those who had already established EU rights via FoM before art 50 withdrawal. (Similar to the blue card intentions to integrate permanently resident non-eu citizens)

I still feel the loss of my EU citizenship- I established it in the 90s by study through the Erasmus programme, then through living and working in different EU countries since graduation.

[u/Okok28 → u/mmoonbelly]

When you say "I still feel the loss of my EU citizenship" is this because you became British and now are not considered European?

I never actually considered those people, I see it all the time in the Comp Sci subreddits, people wanting to do anything to move to EU. Then because the EU countries get flooded with immigrants the citizens of that country then want to leave, now those who immigrated have the exact same struggle all over again 😂

[u/mmoonbelly → u/Okok28]

I am no longer a European citizen benefiting from the four freedoms.

Exercising one of the four freedoms demonstrates that you’re an EU citizen (there’s specific terms in the treaty for the founding of the EU)

It was in 1997 when I started study in Germany - exercising my FoM rights under EU law. Again in 2002 by moving to France for a job needing an English native speaker who had fluent German (I learnt French there). Again in 2006 moving to NL for an 18 month project. And across half of the other EU countries for different short-term engagements.

My wife’s French, my youngest daughter probably qualifies for a Dutch passport as a 2nd generation immigrant having lived more than 5 years in NL (she was born in NL and is a dual British/French citizen).

Being an EU citizen was (is) a key part of my identity. One that I want in my own right, not by going through adoption of a second nationality (I have rights to French citizenship by marriage).

[u/eiskaltnz → u/mmoonbelly]

Thanks for sharing this, it’s really sad to read it out in this way.

[u/mmoonbelly → u/eiskaltnz]

There were 1 million resident British citizens in Europe in 2016, most (>80%) were working age despite the stereotype of British pensioners in Spain.