So, my first post, yet to properly introduce myself but felt I couldn't wait for the video to upload so I am going to post this first as it needs to get shared, understood and talked about.
This is in response to a great article by @supersolarmama. Emigration, Immigration, Bullying, Extortion, Murder, Destruction of Families, and Other Fun Tales
I am a UK subject and my wife is Spanish (though now with dual English/Spanish citizenship). We have just moved our family to the north of Spain to the home she grew up in.
Two years ago this would have never been a consideration for us.
We were fairly comfortable in Britain. We had plans to buy land in the distant future, to start a small holding and build off-grid, looking at ways of diversifying our jobs, raising our first feegle and looking forward to our second. We aren't travelers and have always been most happy at home, the idea of moving to Spain was never a consideration.
The a year later, the referendum happened. Suddenly we were thrown into a maelstrom on uncertainness, a limbo of non-information other than that which we could gather ourselves. Now, my awesome wife and I are definitely politically active and she has been a strong online campaigner and voice since we were involved in Occupy back in 2011. We were able to educate ourselves and ferret out enough information to know that, while the government didn't have a clue what they were doing, at least we had a plan.
The primary consideration was freedom of movement. This is a fundamental right in the EU and is a part of our identity. With her mother in Spain and my parents in the UK, we had to make sure we could get from one to the other in the shortest possible time in case of emergency. My wife, after spending two weeks just collecting paperwork and many months of research, tests, forms and phone calls, gained her UK citizenship. Now we are here so I can get my Spanish citizenship.
We are lucky. We took the plunge with crypto in June last year, we found we could rent the top floor of the old family home in Spain from the new owners at a low rent, and I have an incredible wife, whose powers stretch far and wide, and organised the entire move, plus me, a 2 and a 4 year old, while still campaigning, teaching herself crypto trading, and finishing her written portion of her conversion degree.
We are lucky.
Others are not. There are thousand of mixed EU/UK families living in limbo. A lot of people first thought that the negotiations over citizens rights would be quick and easy, and they could have been. The EU, a week before the talks began, offered the UK an early deal. All residing citizens rights, both EU in UK and UK in EU, would remain as they are, no questions asked, minus freedom of movement. Simple and easy. The government chose to turn it down. They wanted those rights, those people lives, as bargaining chips to better their own position.
4.2 million people, both EU and UK, who couldn't vote for or against it, were thrown into a limbo where no one could tell them if they would be allowed to stay. What the rules would be, whether their families would be separated. Imagine not being able to plan for a future as you don't know what that might be in a year. Having abuse hurled at you in the street, on the bus after believing the society you lived in was a tolerant and caring one. Jobs, bank accounts, mortgages all being rejected because of your suddenly unknown immigration status.
Imagine hearing "What are you worrying about, we all want you here, nothing bad is going to happen" when it is right now, right here, in your head, in the media, online, in the government. And that phrase "Don't worry, they won't throw you out". No, but they can make it as hostile as possible and make you leave.
No dogs, no blacks, no Irish. Signs from 80-90 years ago in lodging house windows across this country. My wife told our brother in law, who is from from Ghana "I am sorry, I never realised how hard you must have had it". She discovered what it feels like to be a persecuted minority. I can't even fully understand. I still have white privileged and I am born and bred in that country.
And the worst thing, the thing that makes me hate my country a little, the thing that seems to be bred into us, is the silence.
The awful, deafening silence. The odd "Don't worry" doesn't cut it. People need to be asked if they are ok. When they say they are not they need to be listened to. We should have been shouting from the rooftops about all the vunerable people the Conservative government has stepped on. But we don't. Not even me, not enough. So I want you to watch these videos. These are 6 stories, 3 from EU nationals, 3 from UK nationals, including me, about the effects that Brexit has had on them.
They need to be shared, people need to understand the realtime effects that this decision to remain silent is having on people.
People need to talk about it. Talk to your friends, tell them about what is happening, read In Limbo for more testimonies.
Most of all, talk to those who are affected by it. Check on them, lend an ear, be a friend.
wow... i didn't even realize this was happening on this scale. i am so sorry so many of you had your lives thrown upside down and are put in the dark as people, as you put it, play with your lives to get what they want... it's truly disgusting and is reminiscent, too, of the horrible race relations in the state.
i'm thankful your wife is so amazing (and i'm sure you chipping in, too, and did some things;) ) ! and was able to procure all of this for you so you can get it worked out. as you say, you are lucky.
i will go ahead and watch the videos to get informed. you would think as humans we would be past this division stuff with the people in the "higher ups" dictating our lives and putting our freedom under threat... but nope! we have a long way to go... peace to you as you're in transition and may your family feel a sense of safety as you go through it!!
Thanks for continuing to share this information and raise awareness about this global nightmare. I am sorry y'all have had to deal with this, but I'm so glad you have found a pathway through. Now we need to make enough noise that others will not have to suffer.
Also, totally unrelated, but I am nominating you for the seven day black and white photo challenge. Check my page for the rules!
Thanks @solarsupermama. If your interested in a more detailed telling of our personal story you should check out my wife @olayar. She is taking time to write out the whole saga. The videos here were her last brainchild before we left in an effort to show people what is happening. Unfortunately they haven't got the views and shares we were hoping for.
As for the photo challenge, I will have to find a way to make black and white pics. My phone camera doesn't have the option.
I will definitely check her story out. Videos are hard for us here because we are super remote, and our internet is quite slow. It takes a while on here to get noticed. Just stay with it because your story is important! That's crazy your phone doesn't have a black and white option in your edit, but don't mess with it if it's too much challenge. Honestly think of it more as an invitation. If it's easy and fun, go for it!
No worries. It will give me an excuse to explore other photo apps
So long as it is bringing you joy!!