I got lucky. I turned 18 with an Irish passport in my back pocket, which meant the EU’s borders stayed open to me even after Brexit. I can still spend a year in Barcelona teaching English, move to Paris to try my hand at a career there, or simply jump on a train to Berlin and see where the wind takes me.

But when I talk to my friends, the same freedom isn’t there. For them, the idea of living in Europe is now a bureaucratic nightmare of forms, fees, and anxious waits for a passport to come back from the visa office.

Within living memory, young Britons could take for granted the freedom to pack a bag to spend a ski season working in the Alps, interrailing through Eastern Europe, or unwinding on the Amalfi Coast – all without a second thought of applying for a visa. Since Brexit, those freedoms have vanished.

For today’s students and graduates, the 90-day restriction is a harsh constraint. The chance to live abroad for longer has become a privilege, as opposed to a rite of passage. This is an opportunity that may only return with the proposed UK-EU youth mobility scheme.

It’s not just a technical negotiation point between Brussels and Westminster; it’s the possibility of giving young people a chance to live abroad again.

Talks between the UK and EU about the scheme started in August 2024, with the European Commission arguing that Brexit had dramatically reduced the number of opportunities for young Britons to experience life in Europe (in case it wasn’t obvious enough).

Under the proposal, UK and EU citizens aged 18-30 would be able to stay for up to four years. During that time, they could study, train, work, or travel.

And now there is growing confidence that the scheme will go ahead, in addition to rebuilt ties with Brussels. Comments from Britain’s EU relations minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, indicate a degree of optimism.

Crucially, the youth mobility scheme does not reintroduce freedom of movement. Critics argue the scheme amounts to smuggling back pre-Brexit rights. However, note that the UK already has similar agreements with 12 other countries, including Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Iceland. 23,000 people used youth mobility schemes to come to the UK in 2023 – a fraction of the 1.2 million who migrated overall that year.

There are also limits built in: caps on numbers, temporary visas, and no automatic right to settle. It is generous, but conditional.

The numbers show how keenly mobility is felt. In 2011, almost 400,000 British citizens aged 15-49 were living in the Europe’s Schengen area for 12 months or longer, according to the Office for National Statistics. But findings from Universities UK International show that the share of UK-based graduates going abroad as part of their studies fell from 8.8% in 2018–19 to 3.5% in 2021–22.

The demand is still there. According to the British Council’s Next Generation UK 2024 report, almost three-quarters of 18–30-year-olds would consider living and working abroad.

My peers deserve to stay longer in Europe than our Brexit prison sentence. Forgive me if swapping rainy England for golden sands and kangaroos isn’t quite my cup of tea, and instead the lure of Europe more appealing. We don’t question the number of Brits heading to Australia or vice versa, so why should a similar agreement with the EU be any different?

The cultural case is just as strong: living abroad boosts skills, confidence, and language learning, which Britain has been losing ground on. In Europe, British citizens are among some of the least likely to speak a second language.

A return to pre-Brexit levels of freedom of movement, or even the UK membership of the European Union, is highly improbable, especially given current discourse around immigration today. The scheme will not heal the rupture of Brexit. But it may give young Britons back something they sorely miss: the chance to live, learn, and grow in Europe without endless paperwork.