Second, mobility across the EU has been increasing over the past two decades, as measured by the share of EU population born in a different EU country (also documented in Fig. 1).
It was important not to forget that the EU was born from the ashes of the devastation of the Second World War, and that it had brought nations together in peace, he added.
McWilliams also argues that Ireland's attachment to the euro, and the EU, is born of the establishment's traditional desire to eschew the British, who are still Ireland's biggest trading partner.
The EU was born out of the ashes of two world wars that had divided the continent, and the single market and political union had grown to 28 members as European leaders saw stronger economic and social integration as a way to compete in a world increasingly orbiting around the United States and China, the two largest economies.
In particular, we should avoid creating a situation in which children of EU citizens born from different relationships would find themselves having a different legal status from that of children born before Brexit, therefore resulting in a possible split of families.
Migration is falling – so why is the number of EU-born agency workers rising?
EU immigrants: we massively overestimate how many EU-born people now live in the UK.
Care homes, where underfunding and recruitment problems have reached crisis levels, are also hugely reliant on EU-born workers.
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of trade body Care England, said small numbers of EU-born care workers were leaving, but the real issue was recruiting new staff.
A key requirement of the scheme, however, is five years' continuous residence in Britain by the end of 2020 — a criterion many EU-born spouses of British personnel will not meet because they have been at bases abroad.
