robsters wrote:.........
what happens if its BREXIT vote to leave the eu will the 5yr residence card issued in the uk be taken away?
It's very, very unlikely, conceivably possible, but if we get to that point I'm not even sure the UK is a country I would want to live in.
So far it's always been principal that rights that were given, according to the law or the interpretation of the law at that time, are retained, even if the law or it's interpretation subsequently changes. As far as I'm aware there is no legal obligation to do this, but it seems like the decent and compassionate thing to do.
For you to lose these rights in any case the UK must have left both the EU and the EAA and not negotiated any free trade agreement of it's own before departing.
If the UK starts unilaterally rescinding the residence rights of EU citizens living there, I'm sure EU will do the same to the British citizens living there and the UK will be flooded with angry, mostly elderly former expats who have been forced to return, leaving behind jobs and property.
I can't see this scenario happening in any decent society, but with the current wave of xenophobia been driven by the media who knows? The Foreign Devil is a convenient scapegoat to divert the populace's attention away from their other woe's. The rise of the Front National in France and Donald Trump must give pause for thought that there might one day be a UK ruled by a coalition of the raving wing of the conservative party and UKIP.
Of course, one other point is even if the great unwashed public votes for BREXIT the government is not obligated to do so.....
“I speak the truth not so much as I would, but as much as I dare: and I dare a little more as I grow older.