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OPINION: The Brexit media coverage of British immigrants in Spain reinforces hated stereotypes

The UK media is finally starting to listen to the plight of Britons in Spain, but their desire to stick to tired stereotypes is preventing the real story of the impact of Brexit on people's lives from being told, says campaigner Sue Wilson.

Published: 11 February 2019 16:52 CET
OPINION: The Brexit media coverage of British immigrants in Spain reinforces hated stereotypes
A recent Channel 4 report on Britons in Spain was criticized by campaigners for reinforcing old stereotypes. Photo: Screengrab Channel 4.

Throughout the entire Brexit debacle, a common complaint from Brits living in Spain is that we’re not being seen or heard.

Despite the UK government claiming that citizens’ rights would be its “number one priority” in the Brexit negotiations, we haven’t seen much evidence of this happening.

Citizens’ rights groups have worked tirelessly to protect our interests but have received limited engagement with the UK government. Unsurprisingly, many Brits in Spain feel that they’re invisible, and that their concerns are considered irrelevant.

Until recently, the UK media has taken little interest in our plight. When interest has been shown, we haven’t always been happy with the results.

Whether it’s the terminology used, the locations and candidates chosen for interviews, or the oft-repeated accompanying photographs sourced from media image libraries, most press coverage has reinforced the stereotypes so hated by most.

Let’s start with the “e” word – most of the Brits I know hate to be called “expats”.

READ ALSO: Expats or immigrants in Spain: What's the difference?

The term comes with such negative connotations. It implies that we are different: better than other immigrants (foreign ones, that is!), simply because we’re British and, therefore, superior to everyone else.

Please call us what we are – immigrants, migrants – and don’t differentiate us from EU citizens living in the UK. We’re all in the same boat, although our crew is friendlier and the weather milder here.

Another media depiction I find annoying and inaccurate is that we’re all pensioners living the life of Riley on a ‘costa’, sipping gin and tonic on a sun-kissed beach.

Well, I confess I am a pensioner and I do live on a ‘costa’, so in that respect, I am a stereotype, but I hate gin and haven’t been on a beach in three years!

Only 25 percent of Brits in Spain are of retirement age and many people in this demographic live on low incomes, relying solely on their British state pensions.

Of course, many do live in coastal areas – just as they live inland, in the countryside, and in towns and cities. The younger, working, majority of Brits in Spain are equally geographically dispersed.

As chair of Bremain in Spain, I’m frequently asked by the media to find interview candidates for various articles and broadcasts.

I always encourage journalists to avoid the British enclaves where Spanish is barely uttered, and the most popular meal is a full English breakfast.

I beg them not to film at the local bowls, golf or bridge club, and to avoid raiding Getty Images and other image banks for the eponymous shot of a British bar festooned in Union Jacks (invariably the same bar in Benidorm!).

I plead with them to extend their interview remit beyond pensioners and to document the concerns of young families, business owners and students. I suggest they try filming in a big city or, perhaps, venture inland and see a different side of how British people live in this amazingly diverse country.

Sometimes, they listen to my advice and the journalists are empathetic.

However, their editors usually have a set agenda that’s hard to shift. In the end, most journalists book a flying visit and have limited time to spend on their story.

Hence, they want to visit a large, touristy resort with lots of Brits milling about, so they can interview numerous people in the shortest time frame possible, then head back to the nearest airport.

The good news is that British citizens living, working and retiring in Spain are receiving more media coverage in the UK – and in Europe – than at any previous time since the 2016 referendum.

We haven’t escaped the unwelcome terminology or locations, but it’s starting to look like the media is listening to our voices, and sharing them with the public.

Finally, a request to any film crews who are planning to visit Spain: please talk to your boss and explain that the most interesting case histories are obtained by going ‘off-piste’.

If, however, you’re filming in the UK, you could, perhaps, suggest carrying out street interviews in a few Remain-voting constituencies for a change. If you think I’m wound up by being called an “expat”, don’t even get me started about the endless, one-sided interviews with Leavers, in Spain and in the UK…

By Sue Wilson – Chair of Bremain in Spain

 

Member comments

  1. Well said Sue! It’s such a shame that this stereotype of British immigrants living in Spain continues to be portrayed in this way. So many of us moved to Spain with the intention of learning the language and experiencing the culture and integrating into the Spanish way of life as much as possible. Of course there are thousands who just come for the sun, sea and sangría and never learn how to say more than half a dozen words of Spanish but they are not the majority and it’s a shame that they are shown as such. I’ve lived in Spain for almost 36 years and lived and worked among the local population and have probably only ever been inside a British bar, half a dozen times during that time. I can speak Spanish to a fairly high standard and prefer to eat and drink in local establishments where I always feel comfortable and at ease. Most of my friends here are the same and we do get really fed up with seeing the news on TV or a newspaper photo showing typical photos of boozy British ex-pats sitting outside a British bar!

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GIBRALTAR

Why has Gibraltar still not reached a Brexit deal with Spain?

With yet another round of Spain-UK negotiations set to begin more than eight years since the Brexit referendum, Gibraltar is still without a deal and a November deadline looms over any treaty. Why has it proven so hard to break the deadlock?

Published: 17 September 2024 13:38 CEST
Why has Gibraltar still not reached a Brexit deal with Spain?

On Thursday September 19th, Spain and the UK resume talks on Gibraltar’s post-Brexit status, and has been the case since 2016, uncertainty is still the prevailing feeling.

The British Foreign Secretary David Lammy recently received his Spanish counterpart, José Manuel Albares in London. Both did their diplomatic duties and talked up the prospects of a deal, with Lammy stating he hoped for an agreement that would ensure greater “prosperity and security for the people of Gibraltar.”

Albares, for his part, understandably centred any hypothetical deal on a “shared prosperity between Gibraltar and the 300,000 Andalusians connected every day in their normal lives”.

READ ALSO: Gibraltar demands Spain return stolen concrete block in new diplomatic spat

Though Lammy and Albares discussed the Rock, no formal negotiations or deal can be struck without EU oversight, so the meeting also included discussion of bilateral issues and international concerns such as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The meeting between the two Ministers was therefore a preamble to yet more formal treaty negotiations in Brussels on Thursday. Since Brexit came into effect at the end of 2020, Gibraltar has essentially existed in legal limbo with no formal treaty.

Border controls have been fudged ever since, leaving locals and Spaniards across the border faced with inconsistent rules and forcing travellers to find creative ways to bypass rules and get over ‘La Línea’. 

Why hasn’t a deal been reached?

So why all the meetings and pre-meetings and endless rounds of negotiations? How is it possible that Gibraltar is still without a Brexit deal all these years later?

A recent piece in El País by Rafa de Miguel, the daily’s UK and Ireland correspondent, perhaps put it best: “The amount of warm words in any political statement is inversely proportional to the progress in the negotiations.”

The reality is that, however many handshakes and photo opportunities and positive attitudes expressed between Spain and the UK on a bilateral level, these are ultimately irrelevant as nothing can be signed without the EU’s approval. 

This is further complicated by the fact that this makes any deal dependent on four way negotiations between Spain, the UK, the EU, and Gibraltar.

Each of these parties has their own individual set of needs, preferences and motivations. The EU won’t want to be seen to give Gibraltar, and by extension the UK, any special treatment for fear of emboldening other member states who desire bespoke arrangements when it comes to border controls and customs checks.

In light of Germany recently reimplementing land border checks, something some say is a direct violation of Schengen rules, this will be especially sensitive in these latest rounds of negotiations. 

Spain has long made territorial claims on Gibraltar dating back to the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, when the overseas territory was first ceded to the UK, and will want to come out of negotiations with something that can be perceived as a political victory, likely an increased Spanish role in border patrols.

Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, has ruled this out definitively over the last few years, citing concerns about British sovereignty.

The UK government in London will also have worries about British sovereignty, but will balance this with the knowledge that Gibraltar negotiations are also an opportunity to reset relations with Europe more widely, something the new Starmer government has repeatedly stated since coming into power.

READ ALSO: ‘It’s time to reset Britain’s relations with Europe’, says UK foreign secretary

Some reports, however, suggest that despite the positive musings coming from London, negotiations have stalled and that Lammy has no intention of signing anything that would deviate from Gibraltar’s needs and concerns.

Political tensions were increased recently when Gibraltar demanded Spanish far-right party Vox return a concrete block stolen from British waters, and the Euro 2024 winning Spanish football team made international headlines when it celebrating by singing ‘Gibraltar es Español’ (Gibraltar is Spanish).

READ ALSO: ‘Gibraltar is Spanish!’: How Spain celebrated Euro 2024 heroes

Despite wanting to improve relations with the EU, Lammy is expected to reiterate the Labour government’s unwavering commitment to the “double lock” on sovereignty, sources told El País.

Perhaps most pressingly, however, is the fact that these new negotiations now have a deadline: the enforcement of new Schengen Area border rules come into force on November 10th and a treaty must be finalised before then. 

READ MORE: Hard border? What we know so far about new Gibraltar-Spain checks

Schengen Zone rules mean that there are two major outstanding points in treaty negotiations: firstly, the sore point of Spanish border guards on British soil, something Gibraltar rejects outright, and also the question of who would run Gibraltar’s airport, which is located on the isthmus between Spain and the British territory, an area Madrid claims was never included in Treaty of Utrecht.

The most contested aspect of negotiations is Madrid’s demand that Spanish agents should be allowed to carry out checks on passengers arriving at Gibraltar airport and that they should be armed and in uniform.

For many Llanitos (Gibraltar locals) this is an intolerable idea and one Picardo rejects outright: “There will be no Spanish boots on the ground,” he has said repeatedly.

On the other hand, Spain argues that no specific protocol can be designed for Gibraltar and that if it wants to join the border-free European area, it must accept Schengen rules.

Spanish boots on British soil is a particularly visceral point for many Gibraltarians of a certain age. In June 1969, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco closed the border gate between Gibraltar and La Línea de la Concepción, cutting the tiny overseas territory off from the world, separating Spanish-British families and forcing Gibraltar to source food from elsewhere on the planet. 

It was eventually reopened in December in 1982 but those 13 years have taken deep root in Gibraltar’s historical memory and is now embedded into the Llanito collective imagination and identity.

For many on ‘The Rock’, the idea of Spanish border guards on British soil, whether it be in the airport or elsewhere, is simply unacceptable under any circumstances. 

Tax could also prove to be a sticking point. Gibraltar has no VAT, but Madrid has argued that if it wants to benefit from fluid border movement, its tax rules must be brought into line with EU rules.

Of course, there’s also both the domestic and international geopolitical contexts to consider here too. All parties – Spain, the UK, Gibraltar and the EU – have been distracted by other events in recent years.

Spain has been preoccupied by political tension, snap elections and the Catalan amnesty, while Britain suffered the almost cartoonish political instability of the outgoing Conservative government and treaty talks were postponed after the general election in July.

Added to this is the fact that the mediating party, the EU, has had its hands full with the war in Ukraine and surging far-right parties across member states, a trend that interestingly both the UK and Spain buck as the only major European states with centre-left governments.

Talks resume on Thursday September 19th, over 8 years since the Brexit referendum.

In British politics, the UK’s exit from the EU now seems strangely absent from debate, as though the issue is over and the country has finally begun to move on — but for Gibraltarians and the thousands of Spaniards who cross the border and work there everyday, Brexit is still an open-ended question.

READ ALSO: ‘Starting now’: New UK govt wastes no time in Gibraltar post-Brexit talks with Spain

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