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| Exactly. Nearly every country in Europe requires foreigners wishing to live in their countries to register and get some sort of permit/permission to stay. Why should the UK be any different? Short of getting citizenship in a country, nothing guarantees you can stay there no matter how long you've lived there. | |
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As an EU citizen, I have the right to move and live in Switzerland. The permit is nothing more than a requirement to register with the local council so that they know my whereabouts, because they can't deny the granting of that permit. Unless you don't have the financial means to support yourself, in which case an EU national can only spend a maximum of 3 months looking for a job. This, I must add, is a condition that all member states can enforce, but successive UK governments have chosen to ignore it.
The UK does not grant a 'permit', but it does require any EU national to register and obtain a national insurance number prior to be allowed to accept an employment position. In essence, it is the same thing.