Monday 20th June, 2016 - What has the EU done for me?

The 3^rd June Times Literary Supplement had an interesting item in which about 30 people from the world of the arts were asked what difference the UK’s membership of the European Union had personally meant to them. It set me thinking about what my answer would be.

It is possible that, if the vote on 23 June is for the UK to leave the EU, my career as a university lecturer will largely match the period of British membership.  We joined in 1973, and I started lecturing the following year.  And 2016 could see both a vote to leave and my retirement.

When I started my career almost everyone I worked with was British.  All my colleagues were, and while there were a few research students from overseas the majority were from the UK.  That has hugely changed – in part through globalisation, but also through the free movement of labour and people within the EU.  When I stepped down after three years as head of the Department of Economics we had appointed to the staff a Finn, a Romanian, and a Spaniard, all without any red tape.  (In contrast the Human Resources Department had had to go through various hoops for us to appoint two Indians and a Turk).  Had we not been able to appoint these ‘immigrants’ we would have had to go for less well-qualified UK applicants, and the standard of education and research we could offer would almost certainly have suffered.  But these colleagues also bring diversity, different viewpoints and experiences, and provide insights that are immensely fruitful in teaching students about the complexity of the contemporary world.

In my own department, Geography, one of my close colleagues is Greek and I have employed a Dutchman to help with my teaching while I was on the University’s Executive Board.  I did a conference presentation recently with a colleague from an administrative department – she is Romanian.  In other parts of the University I have worked closely with several French, Germans, Italians, a Portuguese and so on.  In my view it has been the opening up of the European Union that has created the mentalities for such mobility.

And I have seen that amongst my ex-students.  Back in the 1970s my graduates all sought jobs exclusively in the UK.  Today they know that the whole of the European Union’s labour market is open to them.  I have seen graduates go off to employment in Italy, France, the Netherlands, Germany and to international companies that want the flexibility to send their trainees anywhere easily.  Membership of the European Union has certainly opened up the employment possibilities for young graduates.  It annoys me that the debate on EU membership concentrates so easily on immigration, when the possibility of emigration is one of the great benefits of membership for many people.

I was responsible for setting up my department’s first ERASMUS programme, creating student exchanges around Europe.  Our first partners were in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland (not an EU state but one that paid to be part of the exchange scheme).  Over the years dozens of students have flowed in both directions, with the benefits being met by ALL students whose seminar groups have been influenced by the experiences of those from other origins.  And I like to think we have created some ‘soft power’ through these exchanges as well.  I was interested a few years ago to attend a conference in one of our partner countries where I found that a significant proportion of the younger academics there had been on exchange to Sheffield and had been more successful in their careers as a result – and felt very warmly towards both Sheffield and the UK as a result.

But it’s not only a question of undergraduate exchange students.  I have also supervised PhD students from the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy, as well as advising doctoral or postdoctoral visitors from France and Spain.

In recent years I have been on work commitments to a number of countries which, in the 1970s, would have been unimaginable destinations – Bulgaria, Estonia, Romania – as well as working with colleagues from the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland.  Many commentators see the existence of the European Union as driving aspirations within parts of the former Soviet Union and its satellites, leading ultimately to the events of 1989-1991 and the revolutions overturning Communism, as well as the independence of the Baltic States.  My experiences, and through me those of my students, have been enhanced by the visits and contacts I have made.

In total it is my view that the University has been immeasurably improved by the mobility of staff and students – and by the mentalities encouraged by such mobility – resulting from the UK’s membership of the European Union.  We are a far less parochial institution than we were in the 1970s.  And I’ve only dealt with the teaching aspects of my career here – not the research topics, connections or partnerships that have been fostered through membership.

And there is one more thing that has changed.  Writing this in mid June, I know that a number of my colleagues are packing for their summer visits to their second homes in France, Spain and Portugal, and in some cases they are on track towards retiring there.  And I know that they bought these properties with international mortgages that did not exist before the European Union came into existence.