Seb Kinsey, 18, grew up in Glossop near the Peak District, Derbyshire. Growing up there gave him a love for geography, geology, and the outdoors. Kinsey, who finished his A-levels in summer and is heading to university this fall, wanted to spend a gap year working on the FrenchAlps.
He said, “I was fortunate to have skied before and it was my dream to spend five to six months in the mountains working with young people and meeting people from different places and spending a lot of time outdoors.” Kinsey claimed he had applied for over 15 jobs but was rejected by all of them.
Since the UK has left the EU people with a British passport need a permit to work elsewhere in Europe. This makes it more difficult for EU employers to hire them. Kinsey stated: “That was my original plan, but now it has been severely scuppered.”
He said that those who had EU passports, especially those with excellent language skills, could find seasonal jobs while those without them were shut out. Kinsey stated that the Brexit voting demographics are mainly older and have taken away the freedom to move from the young.
The 18-year old has given up on his plan to work in the Alps during winter and is looking for new ways to spend her gap year. He said, “In short it does not feel fair.” Some people saw working in Europe as a rite-of-passage, but it has gotten much more difficult for people like Kinsey. Some young people still manage to make it work.
Louis and four colleagues were driving back from a Greek restaurant a few weeks ago near the city of Palairos. The sun was just about to set, the Mediterranean Sea lapping on the coast and the 20-year old felt happy and peaceful.
Louis, a Brighton resident, spent three months in Greece over the summer taking pictures for a resort. He worked for a company as a free-lancer, without a permit, during the 90-day limit for non EU tourists.
He claimed he returned a new person. Louis said, “That was my first time living away from home.” “People who know me, mostly family members, said, ‘You have become more confident. ‘” Seasonal work in Europe was a key milestone for many young Britons on their journey to adulthood.
According to Office for National Statistics , in 2011, nearly 400,000 British citizens aged between 15 and 49 lived in Europe’s Schengen zone for at least 12 months. Non-EU citizens are only allowed to stay 90 days out of 180 in the Schengen area.
Britons may find it difficult to get a seasonal job during their coming-of age period because obtaining a work permit is expensive and time consuming.
Louis said, “It is sad.” “It is the new reality of British life.” Lia Middleton was 19 when she attended an international school in Paris with her parents. She said that this gave her both a European and British identity.
She felt that the new rules of working in the EU, when she was planning her gap year in Paris were restrictive and complex. She said that “practically, I felt really trapped”, adding that she had fallen into a “Brexit Depression” of “self pity and anger”.
Middleton arranged to volunteer at her old French school over the summer. She enjoyed meeting the kids, she directed the summer play Robin Hood, and they bought her flowers afterward. She knew that volunteering would mean having no income, which was not an option for most young people.
She said: “There was a sense of disillusionment. I had grown up feeling European, but we’d been deprived of these rights before many of my generation even understood politics.”
Kevin Carreira was born in London, but holds a French passport. Since winter 2018-19, he has worked ski seasons in France’s Alps. He has noticed that there are fewer British workers there because companies recruit Irish and Swedish workers with good English skills instead. He said that some people had given up on those without EU passports.
It is striking how much harder it is for Britons to find seasonal work within the EU than other English speakers, like those from Ireland.
Micheal De Faoite (22 years old) from Dublin travelled to Athens to see his girlfriend in the summer of 2022. He said that he didn’t go to Athens with a guaranteed job, but he just flew there and was hired soon after by a local bar. Once you have an Irish Passport, you won’t be asked any questions. It was his first time living away from home and the experience taught him how to be independent and responsible.
Lauren Conway from Dublin was also 19 years old when she worked in Berlin in 2019. Her experience in Berlin changed her life. She was a visual artist who fell in love with the art scene of Berlin. She spent her free time visiting museums and galleries.
She said that exploring a new location through seasonal work is like “living life in HD”. It really cemented that the best way for a child to learn is to jump in and absorb as much information as they can.
Conway said that moving abroad was one of the fastest ways to achieve a feeling of independence, self-confidence or self-reliance.
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