A person working in a cafe
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The United Kingdom is reported to be considering a deal with the European Union to open up visa pathways for young people to live and work for a year or two on each side of the English Channel. Such youth visas and mobility schemes have been suggested – and swiftly shot down – by successive U.K. governments amid a post-Brexit hostility towards Europe. Now, at the urging of various European governments, it seems the idea is back on the table.
According to the U.K. newspaper the Guardian, which first broke the story, progress has been made on reciprocal youth mobility schemes (also known as working holiday visas) between the U.K. and EU. Such schemes typically involve time-limited work visas for people aged between 18 and 30 years, usually one or two years. The United Kingdom already has such schemes with a number of non-EU countries – most notably Australia. Likewise, many European countries have reciprocal deals in place for youth mobility schemes (with Australia once again featuring prominently).
In theory, the schemes benefit young people who get to expand their horizons, develop their professional experience or simply use temporary work to finance extended holidays. Employers in host countries benefit from a steady stream of cheap labor to work their bars, coffee machines and ski resorts.
Youth visas: unthinkable just a few years ago
As the United Kingdom has been part of the European free movement regime before its exit from the EU, there had previously been no need for such a deal with European countries. The politics of the U.K. after Brexit were quite starkly anti-European, with any hint of active cooperation with the bloc slammed in the right-wing press and shirked away from by more progressive elements not wanting to look like they were ‘betraying’ Brexit voters.
It was this exact political tone that saw Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer swiftly stamp out rumors of a potential youth mobility scheme with Spain in 2024, after the right-leaning Telegraph newspaper accused him of pursuing a ‘free movement’ deal (to be clear, youth mobility visas, with their time-limited nature and age restrictions, are not ‘free’ in any sense.)
Nonetheless, with the constant urging of Starmer’s allies around Europe, and apparently some semantic massaging to emphasize the ‘youth’ aspect of the scheme, rather than the ‘visa’ part, it seems a youth mobility scheme with various EU member states may be in the works. This, while being welcomed by Europe, may come as some relief to British industry, who have long been struggling with historic labor shortages across large swathes of the economy.
Youth visas: a post-Brexit turning point
More broadly, the news that such a youth mobility scheme might be in the works suggests that perhaps cooperation with the EU – even on the once-verboten matter of immigration – might be slowly turning less toxic. One surprising thing in the Guardian article was the endorsement of the scheme by Steve Baker, known to be one of the most vocal and militantly anti-EU of the ‘Brexiteers.’ Whether or not this particular youth visa scheme materializes, the mere fact of it being openly considered by both sides of the Brexit divide suggests that more cooperation with the EU is becoming more possible.