Love it or hate it, the referendum came and went, and the country voted to leave the EU.

Amidst the broken promises and altered facts, immigration remains hot on all agendas, but what do we actually know now that the country is off the fence? Currently EU citizens, including UK nationals, have the automatic right to reside and work in any EU member state. As a result of our exit, that right could be lost, but in reality it simply is not that straightforward.

With a loss of talented workers, labour losses and mobility restrictions affecting not just Europeans in general, but UK nationals working within the EU to consider, the government must tread carefully when considering the future regulation of European nationals’ right to live and work in the UK.

Our new Prime Minister Theresa May has stated that freedom of movement cannot continue how it has in the past, though she is perhaps forgetting that many UK businesses benefit from the current legislation either directly or via trading subsidiaries situated elsewhere in Europe. Whilst her intentions to bring immigration down to a sustainable level may be justified to an extent and supported on paper by the masses, many UK nationals live and work elsewhere within the EU benefitting from the very laws that she may be seeking to change.

The truth is that the real impact on immigration isn’t known by anyone, even the Prime Minister, for the simple reason that it hinges wholly on what the implementation looks like post negotiation. Whilst there may be clear intentions and desires around immigration legislation, this isn’t a decision that the UK can make on our own if we are to continue to have a positive relationship with Europe commercially. If we followed Norway and chose to leave the EU but join the EEA, the current immigration rules would likely remain unchanged for the most part and the UK would still be subject to much European employment law. Similarly, if individual agreements were sought, there would be a need to satisfy our partners who, whilst trading as individual countries, may still be European countries, and could therefore wish to restrict the implementation of any domestic laws within the agreements if it doesn’t match up to those in the EU.

It is easy to look from the outside in, predict widespread changes and make sweeping statements however, the reality is that any changes to immigration laws are unlikely to be radical or immediate.