Testimonies 01

A Norwegian in the UK’s Story

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I’m a Norwegian female living and working in the UK for several decades. My life is here, but also in Norway. Do I feel unwelcome? Not by those that matter. But I do feel in limbo and slightly overwhelmed by the PR application I am reluctantly initiating. This piece of paper I’d never thought I’d need, is now needed.

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A German’s Story

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For me the ultimate goal will be that after having taken bite sizes of time out of my life for about a year I will make the move back to Germany on 30 September 2017 – after 22 years in the UK (I will turn 38 in October). On the back of this huge shuffle sits the very readable list of downsizing, selling my flat, moving into rented accommodation, terminating my job, handing over all freelance arrangements and business contacts I build in London, packing boxes, donating unwanted items, moving in itself, finding a place to live in Germany, registering the address, completing all the legalese, signing up for insurance, sorting out pension arrangements and setting up a bank account.

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A Pole in Yorkshire’s Tale

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I attended a recent 3millions lobbying event and when I arrived at the event “Schadenfreude” was all I felt. “Schade” (shame) because why we have to do it? It should be straightforward. We are living in the UK, this is our home. Since the Article 50 was triggered, this feeling of home has been on very shaky ground. And this is why we met. But I felt also “Freude” (joy). I am not alone. Mine is not a lone wolf’s cry.

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Stay and I suffer, or leave and my husband suffers?

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The 23rd of June 2016 was a dark day for my husband and me. We tried to joke about the referendum, as neither of us actually believed the outcome would be in favour of Brexit. We discussed what country to flee to in the event that it all went disastrously wrong, and settled on Canada. I ranted about how unfair it was that I didn’t get a vote, as a resident for 13 years and a taxpayer for 7 (after 6 years of higher education).

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A former forces wife’s tale

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I was born in Belgium but grew up in Zurich/Switzerland. My parents only ever spoke French to me and my (younger) sister, so we were both really lucky to grow up bilingual French/German. I’d say that I have very much a French culture as I grew up with French nursery rhymes, French music and virtually all my school holidays were spent in my mum’s family in Liege/Belgium.

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Marianne’s Story

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Next time I read ‘get rid of all EU foreigner scum’ on a Facebook page (not that I go on these very often but they do exist), I remember that my mother is still taking English lessons after my 30 years in the UK, just so she can speak to my husband whose French is sketchy at best.

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A Dutch citizen’s tale about PR and naturalisation

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Is it strange that I nearly burst into tears at the end of my passport interview?

After the unnerving first question “do you know why you’re here?”, I got through twenty minutes of fairly random questioning of my personal life, worried that I might be failing because I’m not very good at remembering my parents’ dates and places of birth (I know that’s odd, I just have a very bad memory). He wasn’t even listening to my answers because several times he asked me something which I had just told him as part of the previous answer.

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