Nine years later, her sister Emma headed to Valencia to teach English. “Living abroad was an amazing experience,” she said. “But the paperwork process was the most stressful thing I’ve ever done and definitely made me very anxious whilst trying to settle in Spain for the first few months.”

Lodged between those contrasting experiences was, of course, Brexit. The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union was formally completed in January 2020. It fundamentally changed the relationship between the EU and the UK, including the removal of the right to freedom of movement.

This had allowed Brits to live, work and study in any EU country, with Europeans free to do the same in the UK. Freedom of movement is a long-standing flagship policy of the EU and was hoped to deliver a dynamic, tolerant ‘Erasmus generation’ to lead Europe to new heights.

A vision of the future which British politicians have either plainly rejected or pushed aside. Five years after Brexit stuttered into life, we examine its impact on young Brits and Europeans and why the issue is making headlines again.

Explainer

What is ‘freedom of movement’?

Freedom of movement is a ‘fundamental right’ for all EU citizens and is one of the bloc’s most recognisable policies. It allows EU citizens to freely move between EU countries for work or study, without the need for a visa.

Which age group makes most use of freedom of movement?

Although almost 10 million EU citizens were recorded as living in an EU country other than their country of citizenship in 2022, freedom of movement is often best remembered in the UK for its take-up by young people. Over 180,000 British citizens aged 29 and under were living in Europe in 2011, while the EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme allowed British university students to spend a semester or more studying in the EU. 30-49 year olds were, however, the largest age group of Brits living in Europe in 2011.

What is the Erasmus programme?

Named after the 16th century Dutch scholar, the Erasmus programme supports youth mobility for students in the EU. It has also been known as Erasmus+ since 2014, which includes all of the EU’s educational mobility schemes. The UK participated in the scheme for the final time in 2022. Over 110,000 students from British universities took part in the programme between 2013 and 2022, with UK universities accepting almost 30,000 EU students in the 2017-18 academic year.

Why is EU-UK youth mobility in the news again?

The completion of Brexit in 2020 confirmed the end of the UK’s participation in freedom of movement and student mobility schemes like Erasmus, despite former Prime Minister Boris Johnson having stated that there was “no threat to the Erasmus scheme”. Last April, the European Commission proposed a new youth mobility deal between the EU and the UK. While this was rejected by then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the issue has resurfaced since the Labour Party’s victory in the 2024 General Election. Keir Starmer’s government has at times ‘ruled out’ negotiations over such a scheme, but speculation persists. MPs debated the scheme as recently as January.

Interactive timeline: The history of youth mobility between Europe and the UK

Announcing the end of Erasmus and the introduction of its replacement Turing programme in December 2020, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson lamented the Erasmus scheme’s apparent drain on UK finances.

He told a Downing Street press conference that the UK exchequer “lost out” on EU-UK youth mobility, while the Erasmus programme was “extremely expensive”.

Yet a Universities UK report for the 2018-2022 period showed that the cost of hosting all international students (EU and non-EU) was around £4.4bn, with Erasmus students making a net economic contribution of £3.9bn to the UK economy in that time.

The economic benefit from fee-paying non-EU students was unsurprisingly far higher at over £30bn. Such a contribution makes the ‘extreme’ expense of Erasmus even harder to pin down.

Hosting thousands of young Europeans at British universities was a “wonderful thing”, Johnson added. So wonderful, indeed, that it was left out of the UK’s Brexit deal – even after the prime minister had assured Parliament in January 2020 that Erasmus was under “no threat”.

Has Brexit caused a decline in student exchanges?

The data shows that EU students were at first unperturbed by the UK’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union. In fact, their desire to study in the UK increased steadily year on year, despite a tide of anti-European media coverage and the unclear circumstances faced by Europeans residing in the UK post-2016.

As expected, however, the breaking point was the completion of Brexit in January 2020. It brought into effect the long-speculated changes to the UK’s laws and regulations, including the end of funding for Erasmus exchanges. Its impact on the number of EU students studying in the UK during the 2021-22 academic year is particularly noticeable. The UK lost over 30,000 EU students, although some hangover from the COVID-19 pandemic may also have contributed.

UK students studying abroad, 2017-2022

The number of students from UK universities studying abroad has decreased by almost 50% between 2017 and 2022. With little encouragement to study abroad, it should come as no surprise that fewer and fewer UK students are spending time at foreign universities. While some Erasmus funding continued until 2022, this data is indicative of the younger generation’s disenchantment with the end of Erasmus and freedom of movement.

At least 12,000 more students spent semesters abroad in 2021-22 following the pandemic, but the latest total remains far off the 50,000 students studying abroad between 2017 and 2019 – when Erasmus was still available to all UK students. Post-Brexit agreements with the governments of Australia, New Zealand and others have largely ignored incentivising international study for UK students, further highlighting the gap left by Erasmus.

What are students and staff saying?

While today’s Labour government dare not speak of an EU-UK youth mobility scheme for fear of upsetting Brexit voters, Erasmus was once a simple rite of passage for British students.

For Zoe, the programme was a “life-changing” experience. “The Erasmus funding was an important factor in my decision to study abroad,” she said. “It enabled me to make the most of the experience without fretting about money all the time.”

Others chose to leave the UK for Europe on a more permanent basis under freedom of movement. The Office for National Statistics reported that almost 800,000 British citizens were living in the EU in January 2017.

One of those expats is Rajnish Singh, who moved to Brussels in 2006 to start his career as a journalist. “[Freedom of movement] allowed me to move and live in Brussels, meet my wife, my children are bi-lingual, and I have made some amazing new friends from across Europe,” he said. “It has opened my horizons and life experiences in ways I could never imagine if I remained in the UK.”

In the post-Brexit world, those horizons are rapidly fading away for young people. A year’s study or placement in the EU now demands an expensive, time-consuming visa process.

Law student Nathan, who recently returned from a year at the University of Málaga, felt that the paperwork makes a year abroad “inaccessible” to many young Brits. “Moving abroad in the post-freedom of movement era is difficult and challenging both in terms of time and cost,” he said.

Universities are also struggling to properly advise students on visa and ID requirements for living in Europe. Dr Paul Hare, who supervises study abroad programmes for humanities students at the University of Strathclyde, warned that universities encounter “significant barriers” in coordinating a process which was a formality before Brexit.

“The reintroduction of an open youth mobility scheme, assuming it removed these barriers, would enable current students to enjoy the levels of access to mobility in Europe enjoyed by previous cohorts,” he said.

Access to Europe is not only a matter of university exchanges but also of cultural awareness. Emma, an education and Spanish student, was an English Language Assistant (ELA) in Valencia from October 2023 to May 2024. She said that teaching was an “amazing experience” which allowed her “to view the world in a different light”.

However, with non-EU nationals facing one of Spain’s longest and most bureaucratic identification systems in Valencia, Emma had to choose between living undocumented or paying for an immigration appointment – which should be free – on the black market.

Despite these consequences of Brexit, Spanish schools are still desperate to receive young English-speaking classroom assistants. Anna Xerta, who mentors ELAs at a rural Valencian primary, said that the auxiliars “inspire students’ curiosity and motivation” to learn English.

“The assistants provide a direct insight into the culture and daily life of their country, which the students are impressed and often amazed by,” she said.

Who would benefit from a new EU Youth Mobility Scheme?

Young people