What’s the point of studying German if you can’t work in Germany? - Yorkshire Post Letters

What’s the point of studying German if you can’t work there?

The government’s initiative in proposing a treaty to strengthen Anglo-German cooperation is to be welcomed but it’s disappointing and to many incomprehensible that it doesn’t create opportunities for younger people to study, live and work in Germany as their parents and in some cases grandparents could freely do.

I suspect that there’s not really any deep opposition even among Brexiteers to a reciprocal arrangement called a youth mobility scheme between Britain and Germany.

The UK has these arrangements with countries such as Canada and Australia. The opposition comes from fear of having to extend such provisions to all EU countries.

The fact that major EU players like France and Germany won’t break rank preferring that the EU negotiates as a united bloc with Brexit Britain rather than as individual states demonstrates the importance of solidarity at the European level.

This approach might surprise those with a nostalgic concept of sovereignty and anachronistic sense of British exceptionalism in UK-EU relations, but it shows how aware our European allies are of the 21st century version of what Bismarck called Realpolitik.

Britain remains stuck with the modern equivalent of the divide and rule approach of Bismarck’s British contemporaries. We are the losers for it.

I point out yet again how blatantly unfair it is that British citizens born in Northern Ireland have retained their freedom of movement rights and that footballers can transfer easily between Leeds and Leipzig but a keen and capable student of German at A-level can no longer improve her German further by working there for a couple of years because Britain will no longer reciprocate. It’s hardly surprising that numbers studying German at A-level and university have slumped.

The UK-EU trade treaty is up for review in 2026. I call again for a national conversation to determine the best option for sharing in the development of the European continent. Meanwhile I ask those who object to extending the youth mobility initiative either to be honest and justify why my grandchildren are deprived of the life-enhancing opportunities their Irish cousin retains or perhaps come up with an alternative.