This is a very nice BBC.com article about British expatriates living in the small town of Alet-les-Bains not too far from Carcassone. It's a poor area of France, and the outsiders seem to have been a very positive influence on the local economy, as well as having worked hard to fit in. Now, of course, there is Brexit, and both the British and the French are worried. The drop in the pound has already sent some folks back home.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10633 posts
Very interesting article, acraven. This has been a subject on the Expat Forum since the vote. Some of the residents I’ve met in various areas of France are low-income retirees who couldn’t afford to buy anything in England, so they bought old houses in economically depressed areas of France (like where some of my family used to live). I hope the £ recovers because they have no other place to go.
Posted by
Alsenborn, Germany
1488 posts
The English pound is not going to recover post Brexit for a long time. The English economy is to small and inflexible to compete against the EU single market and with the number of financial institutions leaving for the mainland Britain is going to be poorer by Trillions of dollars. The only hope those expats really have is that the Euro tanks worse, which could happen based on the situations in Italy and with the entire EU banking system. If China slows down, which also seems likely, the outside money for real estate is going to disappear and the banks can't cover that.
Property in many countries over there are seriously over priced as the banks can't write down the values of those they hold due to failed mortgages, and neither can they afford to fill the empty places with people who need a home but can't afford one.
I wish those folks luck, but the countries never resolved the underlying issues that are causing those small towns to die.
Posted by
Eugene, Oregon...Formerly Ventura, CA
2262 posts
Great read, thanks!
Posted by
Chicago
2047 posts
I think what is utterly amazing is just how many expats voted for Brexit. Especially in Spain and other countries. Mostly due to ‘too many foreigners’. My own intuition tells me that when the party in power changes there will be a second vote and the UK will come back into the Union.
Posted by
Alsenborn, Germany
1488 posts
The UK can vote all it wants, but at this point the only way it's going to be allowed back into the EU is totally or not at all. And until the British are willing to give up their currency and some of their sovereignty that's not going to happen. They don't have time to even have a vote to stop Brexit; they are inside of 120 days from it happening now. The normal 'kick the can down the road and let the next generation sort it out" method of politics is really biting them in the butt this time.