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Comment by lkramer | Hacker News Reader

As an EU citizen I would have no issue granting free movement to British Citizen even after Brexit. The British are valuable for Europe both economically and culturally and I don't see why a bunch of Xenophobes should be allowed to punish all Brits, including those who are curious and adventurous and wishes to live and work in other parts of Europe.

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As an EU citizen, I would not accept granting free movement to British citizens unless I be granted free movement through the UK borders.

I do not want a one-way street where I am given the shorter stick.

It is not like the British citizens were a voiceless majority led by a xenophobic minority: they voted and the majority spoke.

Well, you as an individual would be given the shorter stick, I can see that. But I feel Europe as a whole would be richer for it, just as Britain have benefitted from immigration (despite their refusal to acknowledge this). In addition, as certain elements in Britain hijacks the process and tries to distance Britain more from the EU than even the Brexit vote mandates, showing the British people that we still consider them part of us, despite the shortcomings of their government would be better than play the eye for an eye game. In addition I feel it would facilitate Britain rejoining the EU which I hope happens sooner rather than later.

I can understand why you would not share this view though.

Immigration is an entirely different subject.

British citizens are very welcome to immigrate to the EU, and commit, and get citizenship.

I wouldn't call 37.4% of the electorate a majority.

I used to think like you. But at the same time, we EU citizens also have to fight for things which are good to us, like the right to visit the UK. As the UK departs, they're making it us vs them. So if the EU has to make threats on derailing some of "them" lives to benefit some of "us", I'm for it.

The Brexiteers don't actually want to stop EU citizens visiting the UK, they want to stop them having the automatic right to settle and work in the UK and gain UK benefits. This is the crux of it.

I'm an anti-Bexit Brit and have benefited hugely from the right to work elsewhere in the EU and travel throughout the EU without a visa. Several of my employers probably would not have been based in London without that right, they'd have been based in Paris or Berlin. It's crazy to me that we're putting that in jeopardy.

However I don't think this will affect current EU citizen residents in the UK, or UK citizens currently resident in the EU. From what I've read, both the UK government and EU leaders are agreed that existing residents should have their current rights grandfathered in.

I wish you were right. However, read this comment elsewhere in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16492116

I can't speak for the accuracy of that comment though.

Its a two way street - UK must allow the same for EU citizens.

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