Julie Coles from Willis Towers Watson Opens up About Living in Spain While Brexit Plays out

Julie Coles from Willis Towers Watson opens up to myGwork‘s Louise Sinnerton about living in Spain while Brexit plays out

Picture by Reyes Cervantes for REDI, panel speaker at a REDI event

Julie’s story is not uncommon among British people – she moved to Spain in 2001 and has built a life here. Julie Coles is among the almost one million British people that live in the European Union. Her job as a consultant is based on connecting people to each other, and people to information, but feeling connected and in the know isn’t something she is experiencing in relation to Brexit. At the moment Julie, like many other Britons in Europe, feels under-informed and unsure about how Brexit will affect her and other people who have built their lives in the EU. The goalposts could be changing imminently and you can keep up-to-date on your current rights and essential information for UK nationals travelling and living in the EU on the UK government website.

With over 18 years in Spain, Madrid is home for Julie. She lives with her Spanish wife and six year old son and tells me that Madrid has been a welcoming, non-judgmental home for them all: “Living in the capital of Spain with lots of people and diversity means our situation isn’t that unusual. For example, when our son was at a nursery there was a little girl who had two mums and now he’s at school there are two boys in his class who also have two mums, so we don’t feel particularly different.”

Speaking about moving to Spain and starting a family Julie comments, “When we decided to start a family, we didn’t face discrimination or major obstacles, because many rights for same-sex families, including marriage and access to private fertility clinics, had already been won in Spain. We would have had to think about starting a family together more if we didn’t have that legal protection. We were both able to register as our child’s parents on his Spanish and UK birth certificates, whereas in some EU countries this is still not an option or legally recognised.