Brexit has British fleeing to Europe

Five years ago, I emigrated to Germany from Russia, because it had abandoned any pretense of wanting to be a European country. Now, I’m watching in amazement as Britons are doing the same, in droves, for the same reason.
It’s well known that tens of thousands of UK citizens have obtained second passports from Ireland as insurance against a post-Brexit loss of the European freedom of movement. But that’s only part of story. Far more British citizens are applying for passports in other European nations than had been doing so before Brexit referendum; they’re also moving to these countries in numbers not seen in a decade.
The number of Britons acquiring the German nationality, for example, has jumped from hundreds to thousands a year. There are so many of them they no longer get a traditional ceremony when they receive their German passports.
In 2014, five times as many Russians as Britons became naturalised Germans. The situation has reversed today: In 2018, 6,640 UK nationals obtained German passports, compared with 1,930 Russians. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) international migration database, after Brexit passed, the naturalisations of Britons also went up sharply in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden, although the absolute numbers are smaller there than in Germany.
While Britons getting second passports from Ireland mostly aren’t going anywhere, there’s a substantial jump in UK emigration to the rest of the EU.
While Britons migrated to the continent in similar numbers in the mid-2000s, about half of those emigres were moving to Spain, which marketed itself aggressively to retirees. Today, the geography of the UK emigration is much more diverse. And, as with naturalisations, continental Europe is receiving significantly more nationals from the UK than Russians.
The numbers are bigger than those reported by the UK Office of National Statistics for the outward migration of UK citizens —according to the ONS, net out-migration in the 12 months ending in March 2019 reached 52,000.
It’s true that Britons face a lot less bureaucracy than Russians when they want to move to EU member states. And, unlike Russians, they are allowed dual citizenship in Germany while the UK is still an EU member. But I still can’t help my incredulity as I look at the numbers.
The fact that UK is still an attractive destination for immigrants makes it likely that post-Brexit Britain will be able to attract enough talent to replace those who leave.
The growing emigration of UK nationals is a measure of policy failure — just as it has been for Putin regime in Russia since 2014 Crimea annexation. The UK, like Russia, is losing people who disagree with insular policies. Brexiters may consider that good riddance. But I’m deeply convinced that countries need such people. They’re the ones who connect nations in this increasingly small world, and with fewer of them, countries can quickly lose their edge.
—Bloomberg

Nathaniel Bullard is a Bloomberg NEF energy analyst, covering technology and business model innovation and system-wide resource transitions