Four On The Move

Brexit means Brexit , said Theresa May, when no one knew what it meant. Not much has changed in this matter since then, but I think I can tell a bit about what Brexit means for European immigrants in the UK, as I was one of them. People tend to assume we left the UK because of Brexit. No, we didn’t, Brexit was not a direct reason. Did Brexit play a role at all? Yes, it did, but only as one of the many elements of a jigsaw puzzle that eventually led us to this decision. I still remember the night of the referendum. I woke up after midnight and decided to quickly check the initial results. Of course, I knew the majority would vote for remain. I knew, didn’t I? What was BBC showing then? How the hell was this happening?! I didn’t sleep until the morning, checking the results every 5 minutes and hoping they would change. The next day at work felt like a funeral. We could not believe it, we did not even know how to comment. Was it possible that we had lived in a bubble all...

The first big shock for a European studies graduate One of the first big surprises for me as somebody coming here from continental Europe was to find out that when Britons say ‘Europe’ they don’t mean themselves and their country. They mean the continental Europe, like ‘Europe’ was somewhere else, but not here. This is so different to how my friends from other European countries identify themselves and also different from how we see Britain – when we say ‘Europe’, we do include Britain in it. I feel there are two elements of this ‘not being Europe’ identity. One of them is a strong individual distinctive identity of this island. Coming from continental Europe you will notice all the obvious signs of doing things differently here: driving on the left side of the road, having two taps in the bathroom and using the imperial measuring system (good luck with learning that one!). You will try to understand what cricket or netball is, and why people here have no idea about vol...

Whenever my parents came to visit us in Liverpool they exclaimed with surprise several times a day: Everyone is so nice in here! And they can’t even speak English, so this is just the impression they got through smiles, gestures and my conversations with locals that they watched. If I could name only a few things I love about this country, it will probably be the first one: strangers smile, greet each other and start small talks in the street, shop, park etc. Being nice works as a boomerang, and they seem to know it. Some of my friends from other countries say that it’s artificial and is not about real relations with people. No, it’s not. It’s only about being nice and friendly. In Eastern Europe we are definitely more about real and deep relationships, but if you ask me, they don’t contradict giving a smile and a ‘good morning’ to a stranger passing on the street, or having a funny small talk in a queue at the supermarket. Actually, holding small talks is something I ...

‘How often do you go home? ’ – was a usual question I got from my British colleagues and neighbours, who referred to me going to visit Poland. At first it made me quite upset, because to me ‘home’ was where my family and I chose to live – so at that time it was Liverpool.   Later, I just decided to think that this was an easy way for them to ask about travelling to my country of origin. Still, one of the most welcoming feelings I had was when I heard a British border control officer say: ‘So you’re going back home now ’, when we were returning to Britain after a few-weeks travel in Europe. It was the first time I heard a British person referring to Britain as MY home. Living outside of my country of origin I’ve had many reflections around ‘home’ and how we define it. Recently I had a chat with a close friend about moving countries. Before this conversation I had always thought it was so much easier to move countries when you’re single, because you don’t h...

 In search of xxx (write your own) in your life Years ago, I had a discussion with a bus driver in Spain who said: One always wants to stay in their hometown. If one has a good job in their hometown, they would never want to leave . Back then I was twenty-three, enjoying my Erasmus semester in Granada, hoping to stay there for longer and dreaming of all other places in the world I will live in. I couldn’t agree less with his statement. If you’re reading this blog, you probably also have some expat experiences, maybe already many of them, or maybe you’ve only started thinking about moving to another country. We may have different motivations for moving abroad. Love, career and adventure will only be some to name. Antoni and I had always felt life was too short to stay in only one place. After some years of studying and working in Krakow, we came back to our home region in the South of Poland and did everything people usually do to settle – we built a house ...