- 30 Sep 2016 20:51
#14722923
The Brexit campaign has unleashed a wave of verbal and physical attacks on Europeans in the UK. The hate crimes have multiplied with hundreds of cases up to grievous beatings and murder.
The thin layer of civilization preventing racist hatred from surfacing is only skin-deep. That's the same everywhere. But when your national politicians exploit latent xenophobic sentiments for their own political agenda, an outburst of racist violence is invariably the result. You reap what you sow.
Europeans, including the German director of the A&V, are now planning their exit in the wake of the Brexit campaign.
Exit before Brexit: The 'unwelcome' EU citizens eying their escape
Hate crime reports surge in Britain in weeks around 'Brexit'
Brexit: Hate crimes up fivefold in week after UK vote to leave EU
The thin layer of civilization preventing racist hatred from surfacing is only skin-deep. That's the same everywhere. But when your national politicians exploit latent xenophobic sentiments for their own political agenda, an outburst of racist violence is invariably the result. You reap what you sow.
Europeans, including the German director of the A&V, are now planning their exit in the wake of the Brexit campaign.
Exit before Brexit: The 'unwelcome' EU citizens eying their escape
"I was Britain's biggest fan, pre-referendum," the physiology professor recalls. "I was always very complimentary about it. Compared to Italy it's less chaotic, more meritocratic, more cosmopolitan."
"Then all of a sudden, you find out that a large part of the population don't feel that way. They don't want you here ... I've been rejected by the British people."
Tanja Bueltmann says she saw Brexit coming a long way off. Living in the northeast of England, one of the most eurosceptic areas of the UK, and active on Twitter, where she has frequently been attacked for her pro-EU stance, she was well aware of the rising tide of support for a Leave vote.
"I've no idea why anyone thought it would be otherwise," the German-born history lecturer, who has spent 10 years in the UK, says. "I don't understand how the polls got it so wrong."
Kerstin Albers (not her real name) says she, too, saw the writing on the wall -- but after 13 years in Britain, was nonetheless taken aback by the final results.
Albers and her family, also originally from Germany, were so concerned about the growth of anti-EU sentiment across the country that they began planning for a future outside the UK long before the first ballots were cast.
"Over the past two years, the atmosphere in the UK has changed towards EU migrants. I don't feel welcome here [any more] ... [It was] such a tolerant and open society, and we have enjoyed being part of it, but now it feels different."
She decided to take pre-emptive action: "I am sad to leave friends, but at the same time, I don't want to sit here for two years and wait."
"Britain won the Olympics of xenophobia," on June 23, says physiology professor Marcora. He says he's seen this hatred of foreigners at first hand.
"I wouldn't go talking Italian in one of the pubs in Chatham town center or in Gillingham (another nearby town). I wouldn't feel safe." Even in "slightly posher" Rochester, he says, someone yelled at him to "Go home!" when they heard him speak.
A small survey carried out by the pro-Remain group Academics for Europe found that 71% of those questioned were thinking about leaving the UK in the wake of Brexit.
Boin Cheong grew up in Berlin, but has made London her home. Now she's not so sure about that decision.
"I really don't see my long term future in this country," she says. "I've started looking at other places."
"I want to leave because I feel unwelcome, but also because it feels like there's no bright future here anymore."
Hate crime reports surge in Britain in weeks around 'Brexit'
Brexit: Hate crimes up fivefold in week after UK vote to leave EU