I don't think that people in general have any idea of what would actually cause them a loss.
I'm in the UK and we have UKIP getting popularity, but if they implemented their migration policy it would utterly destroy the UK economy for one fundamental reason that nobody seems to consider.
There are more UK nationals who have migrated and are working abroad than foreign nationals working in the UK.
If the UK implemented a tit for tat migration policy with the rest of the world, then it would actually have to accept more migration than it currently does and if it just blocked migration altogether and threw people out, well then other countries would be very likely to return the favour and the UK would see several million new workers arriving in the country, all with fantastic global experience, full immediate rights to work and benefits, and excellent english.
But still, UKIP is popular, and people who don't want to lose anything are trying as hard as they can to shoot off their own foot with a ballot.
I'm not sure, many of the UK citizens working abroad are probably workers with specific skills who would get visas regardless of the EU. I doubt other countries would force these people out to spite us because we no longer accept eastern europeans who work at costa coffee.
Don't you think the visas would go to people from countries with less stupid immigration rules? The UK is hardly the only source of educated labour.
Also, there are a hell of a lot of people from the UK who work round the world doing jobs like dishwashing and wouldn't be able to afford to travel if they didn't.
Visa policy for most countries varies wildly according to country of origin.
Most countries operate a tiered approach to visa allocation and often heavily restrict applicants from certain countries if they have disagreements with them.
Is funny that while people from abroad are painted as devious manipulative devils when they are trying to enter the country, they suddenly get portrayed as shining beacons of angelic forgiveness when it comes to the subject of what would happen to all of the British working abroad if we shut our borders.
