Category: Politics

It’s a cloud hanging over our heads. It’s on our mind, hence the double post.

Nicklas and I don’t want to go anywhere, we love our home, our neighbourhood, the life we have in London. I love the idea of Rafael growing up here, of everything that London has to offer. But we know things can change.

We are lucky: our types of jobs allow us to work remotely, we could go back to where we came from. We’d likely lose a lot of money selling our house post-Brexit, but right now that’s not my biggest concern. Leaving the place I most love in the world and where I thought I’d raise my child is — whether because we’re asked to leave or the living conditions deteriorate enough that we need to leave the place where we’ve been for more than half (Nicklas) / a third (me) / all (Rafael) of our lives.

People have asked me what we’re doing about Brexit. My response is usually a shrug. What can we do?

Both Nicklas and I don’t believe we should be required to take British citizenship to live in the UK. That is why we moved here in the first place. So if that turns out to be the case, moving away will be an option.

But we did spawn a British citizen, so what about him? There are no guarantees his citizenship will be untouched, but he’s got two other citizenships to fall back on.

But what about our house? Leyton’s housing market has been good to us, but if thousands of European citizens flee the UK at once, selling the house at a profitable price will be unlikely.

And what about our jobs? Both Nicklas and I are in the extremely privileged position that our jobs allow us to work from anywhere with an internet connection.

Right now, we are burying our heads in the sand and hoping for the best, or at least for the solution that is least disruptive. We want to stay. This is our home. Otherwise, Portugal might get 3 extra residents.

I’m not into politics. By that I mean I’m not passionate about it — I do like to make informed decisions and to be aware of what’s going on around me.

Moving to the UK meant I’m now trying to keep up with what’s happening in two countries. And this is far from an ideal situation.

Because I’m in London now, I’m more exposed to the local news, but I’m not familiar with the past — so I have to be told what happened before. Because I’m not in Portugal, I have to ask my friends and family what are the latest developments and how those are affecting them since I’m not confronted with it on the news every day — but I do know the history.

The conclusion here is that I’m completely lost by now, but I’m trying my best.