The five million people missing from the Brexit debate

As one of five million Britons living overseas, I will not be present in the UK when it decides whether or not to leave the European Union on June 23.

I’m not afraid to say that watching the future of my country unfold from afar is an unsettling experience – I feel strangely helpless, more so than during last year’s General Election, when at least the day-long get out the vote drive made me feel I was making some small difference.

However, just because I will not be there doesn’t mean my voice doesn’t matter. All Britons who have lived overseas for 15 years or less are eligible to vote in the upcoming referendum. Even those who have been abroad longer may get a chance- two Britons barred from voting under the rules feel so strongly about the choice to come that they’ve petitioned the UK Court of Appeal to abolish the eligibility period outright.

Whatever the outcome of that decision, British expats represent millions of votes in this referendum – enough to swing the outcome: if they can be mobilised.

For Brits living in EU countries, the decision to participate in the referendum will be keenly felt. After all, the EU affords these expatriates the freedom to stay in their adopted homelands for as long as they want, with unencumbered access to social security benefits, preferential university tuition fee rates versus non-EU residents, automatic access to health insurance, and a state pension.

For those of us living farther afield, we may ask: why bother?

I live in a union as divided as the one I left behind- riven with the same seemingly intractable social and cultural fault lines, buckling under the weight of its own contradictions, restrained by a stifling bureaucracy, politically deadlocked and menaced by virulent demagogues on either side of the political divide.

I am, of course, talking about the United States of America.

Observing the Brexit debate from the US perspective makes for entertaining viewing. President Obama’s intervention made the front page of the established press, but generated few opinion pieces to the best of my knowledge- though one reader of the Wall Street Journal saw fit to argue that an independent UK would “send a shudder through ISIS and its brethren,” as it would signal “that the Brits are going to fight to protect their values as a nation.”

To borrow from When Harry Met Sally: “I’ll have what he’s having.”

Those who have offered broader comment tend to be guest columnists from EU countries – such as Jochen Bittner of Die Zeit and Toby Young, of The Telegraph and Spectator.

However, the odd American-penned column I’ve stumbled across generally reflects its author’s confusion as to why the UK would want to leave a union that has proven itself to be a huge economic success.

For example, take Robert Samuelson’s piece, headed “Britain Flirts With Economic Insanity”, which concludes that Brexit would “weaken an already sputtering global economy” and harm the US, “which doesn’t need a major ally – Britain – to go delusional.”

Yet Britons like me living in the US, or any other non-EU country, know that the Brexit debate is as much about our shared national identity as it is about economics or politics – something our generous hosts may not fully grasp.

Wherever we are, we remain Britons, and have the right – the duty – to take part in shaping our country’s future. We may love our adopted homes, but cannot neglect our original abodes. This vote is too important.

I’ve learnt in my short time living in the US that a complex political union can work for all its people – and that seemingly insurmountable differences between the constituent parts can be overcome for the betterment of the whole. I believe the same is true of the EU – which is why I will be voting to remain.

But more importantly, I believe every one of us overseas should register to vote, Time is running out, however. Applications need to be submitted by May 16 to guarantee expats’ inclusion on the electoral roll.

So to my comrades back in Blighty, I ask you: get in touch with your friends and family abroad and urge them to register before it’s too late. Otherwise millions of voices may be silenced for good.

Louie Woodall is a member of Labour International CLP. He blogs at https://medium.com/@LouieWoodall