[smcl]

I really feel for the raw deal Poles, Romanians and Bulgarians have had in the UK media. People act like these are primitive countries with hordes of would-be immigrants desperate to take advantage of the UK's "generous" (HA!) benefits system ... and it's simply not true. Charlie Brooker had an excellent piece on the news coverage, once the EU restrictions were completely lifted in the last few years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jai4v4aNe-s

[noir_lord]

My partner is Hungarian, I'm English - the atmosphere in this country is fucking retarded, she has a degree in international finance and is just finishing qualifying as a ship broker, her education level exceeds mine and nearly everyone I know, she's lived here for 10 years, always paid taxes and is raising her son here but somehow she's a problem.

In the longer term we are looking at a move to Germany as she speaks fluent German (she worked as a translator), Hungarian and English and I'm a programmer.

I've never been particularly proud of been British (I didn't get to tick a box saying where I wanted to be born) but these days I am ashamed.

[thriftwy]

That's how the life in the world with borders is. Anywhere in the world.

The situation when the color of your passport is more important that any of your eduction, qualifications and experience is the rule, not an exception. It is how the world works by default, for people outside IT, and for most people inside IT too.

I'm kind of annoyed how people from first-world countries are suddently striken with this revelation when it suddently affects somebody they know, shows how blind they were when it didn't.

[avh02]

My favourite thing has demonstrating to people how complicated it is for me (non-EU/UK) to go just about anywhere from the UK as a base (brexit makes no difference to this).

I originally wanted to live/work here, to the extent of job hunting and getting offered a job - I decided not to go ahead because I would have to go through hell every time I wanted to take a break/vacation and go somewhere.

Living/working in the schengen zone means I can just hop on a plane/train and go to a variety of places. Why wouldn't I do that?

[Silhouette]

I don't know your situation, but I can't help thinking that some of the attitude you describe is more perception than reality.

One of the things even our current government has managed to say reasonably clearly is that people from the EU who are living and working here legally today will be welcome to stay post-Brexit. They're quibbling over details, because that's what politicians and diplomats do, but I don't think anyone serious is suggesting that someone like your partner or her son should lose out here.

Similarly, there are some very nasty racist/xenophobic people in the UK, and sadly there always have been, and it looks like there are similar unpleasant undercurrents in various other places around the EU as well. However, exactly none of the Leave voters I know would be among those people. There seem to be plenty of reasons people voted Leave that have nothing to do with the immigration issue or somehow wanting to "throw out" citizens from other EU states. One group of people I talked to before the vote were even tending towards Leave for exactly the opposite reason: they had nothing against reasonable immigration, but didn't see why the EU should have an advantage over, say, someone similarly qualified or connected but from the US or Australia, and they wanted the whole immigration and visa system to be forced to update for the 21st century. (Possibly an optimistic view of the likely outcome, but a reasonable enough position in principle, IMHO.)

I am not ashamed to be British because of the Brexit vote, but I am sad about how it's been portrayed particularly in the media and by a rather unpleasant part of the Remain contingent online, because I think it makes some people feel far less welcome here than they still are by most Brits.