Good morning 🙂
It has been a while since my last post and this is the kind of post that you don’t see in my blog often, but I have felt the itch to write about this.. you see I kind of been having a writer’s block as I didn’t know what to write and I could not finish my drafts, all I could think of was writing this topic. So maybe, just maybe, my writing modjo will be back after I’m able to finish this post.
So, what is this about?
Yesterday we saw the UK voted to leave European Union. At first I could not believe what I read when I read about it online. To be fair, I did not really do research about it prior to yesterday. I am aware of the event, but did not really care. Well, I’m no British nor European, and I don’t live there anymore, I thought. But still, I followed the news.
As I just started to read more about it a couple days ago, I realised something. From what I read, this is about immigration. I understand that there will be different opinions than mine. But I chose to believe so, and immigration is an issue very close to home for various reasons.
I tried to be an immigrant when I went to study in the UK. I hoped to graduate, get a job, and settle there. Though my efforts did not succeed and I had to leave the UK for good, a number of my friends’ did. They are still living there, and trying to build their life.
Now I may not be the best person to tell you this but I truly believe that it takes one hell of a struggle to immigrate. Imagine feeling that you don’t belong home and think that you need to go out for a better chance. Imagine taken the step out of your comfort zone into a foreign land, trying to blend in while at the same time trying not to forget our roots – because really, who are we without one?
I saw how hard my friends’ struggle. From the Polish guy and Italian girl who I met during my part time job; my fellow classmates who studied hard and strived to build a career in London (London voted Remain – btw), all struggled to make in the UK.
Sadly, our generation lost it to the older ones. Those who thinks that immigration is the roots of evil and thinks that it is better to close their doors.
Although it will take a while until changes will fully take place, and we are yet to found out how it will be, I could not help to think of my friends and the rest of immigrants – how this decision will impact their lives. It definitely will change, but is it going to be for the better? the worse? And how will it impact us as a society in general? How will it impact the world that we live in?
Oh my… why does it looks like we are going backwards as a society? This is the year of 2016, we should know better than to close our doors. We should embrace diversity, not killing it. Why can’t we all live side by side? we’re all humans after all.
And that is the end of my post. I feel relieved to have written about it. After all this is my blog and it’s where I tell my stories. Today, the story is about how I feel about the current affairs.
Have a good day and enjoy your weekend. Stay safe x
Christa Bercerita 
I feel you, Christa.. The same atmosphere has been happening in Australia. In fact they have closed the door to the asylum seekers. I got a plan to settle down there in the near future. I’m obviously not an asylum seeker but the recent immigration issues just make it tougher for people like me to do this. It frustrates me some sometimes. Well, fingers crossed..
Fingers crossed, Emy 🙂 hope all goes well for you there!
Analoginya bila ada 10 orang, yg bagus 4 yg jelek 6 yang 4 harus menanggung kekurangan yang 6. Pilihannya jd jelas. Itu dan soal imigran, sama saja, ya, human fear the unknown.
Iya itu udah inevitable yah… 😐
Aku baru ngikutin tadi malam beritanya jd gak bs komen bny.
Beritanya emang makin rame yah beberapa hari ini Non..
I was very firmly in the remain camp having done quite a bit of reading up on it and talking to different people. It does make me feel unwelcome and sad. I work in a classroom with 60% of children from other countries and I’m sad for their families as well. We had one student in our classroom move back to lithuania last week because of the looming brexit vote.
If it weren’t for being bombarded with questions like “what do you think about all these foreigners” since I’ve moved here maybe I would feel differently but this vote has made it all the more clear how divided and closed minded england can be. It’s easy to get swept up in the nationalistic pride of this charming island but at the end of the day we are all humans and it should never be “us” vs. “Them.” I think nationalism is a dangerous thing; that it creates a hierarchy of humans that just doesn’t exist. I do feel personally slapped in the face by the vote as do many of us “foreigners”
Totally agree with your point on nationalism, in one point it is good to be patriotic to your country but do we really have to close our doors? I sincerely believe that us humans are meant to explore and not stay in one place as the world’s too big.. ah, I do hope that it will be ok for you there, I’m anxious about my move to the US now. Trying to be optimist here 🙂
Oh this what i was thinking about. Kami baru pindah dengan harapan baru karena we feel we don’t belong to Italia. Then, boom this bomb just arrived. Even if Scotland chose to remain, we know we’ll get the impact soon. People here is very disaappointed. No wonder they already talk bout next referendum. Hope everything goes smoothly here. Finger crossed
Ahh iya yah Nggi, pas banget kejadiannya kamu baru pindah ke Scotland. Semoga nggak ada masalah berarti ya. Fingers crossed for you! 🙂
I was an immigrant in England as well, albeit only for a year in Glasgow circa 2000, my father received a scholarship for master degree and took us, the family, with him. I was only 6 at the time, but I can faintly remember the uncomfortable stories from the PPI elders; bonding with the Jews, Hindis and other Asian kids in our private catholic school (the public school near our apartment was highly not recommended for foreigner); and having my mother who wear hijab getting ogled at when we’re walking in public area.
That was on year 2000, it seems like things haven’t changed much, cultural distrust, prejudice, Islamophobia et all. Glasgow might be a modern city, but the area I lived in was pretty rural, it made living as Asian in that area pretty stifling. To top it all, somehow a lot of people associate Asian as Chinese, and Moslem as Pakistan, and those four are acid oil against England’s strong brew tea. Being Moslem Asian from Indonesia makes introduction sessions extremely taxing.
I have high hopes for Scotland referendum, if this could be a step for a more open and culturally accepting world, well fingers crossed luv.
Tane thanks for your story! I do hope for the best.. might be too naive but I still strongly believe in kindness and hope for world peace 🙂
Sedih dan ironis ngerasanya pas tahu Brexit kejadian beneran. Kemaren kan isunya biaya yang dikeluarkan UK udah kegedean ya dibanding manfaat yang mereka dapet. Trus katanya duit yang buat dibayarin ke EU mau dipake buat biaya jaminan sosial. Eh begitu Brexit udah menang, politikus yang gembar-gembor soal itu langsung balik kucing menyangkal soal pengalihan biaya itu. Temen yang lagi di sono cerita hal yang sama. Trus ngenes juga baca twitnya Donald Trump pas dia di Scotland. Hadeuh…
Iya ini awalnya gara2 isu ekonomi ya Dan, taunya ujung2nya (menurut aku) malah jadi soal imigrasi 😦 Ihhh si Trump mahhh nggak ketulungan deh dodolnya, sebel. Aku lagi berdoa keras2 jangan sampe dia jadi calon 😦
I hope EU will learn a lesson from Brexit, because while the cooperation between all these countries are beneficial in many sectors, the growing discontent in the population (not just in GB, but also here in DK) shows that there is clearly something that’s not working.
Indeed there are some things that need to be re-think about, ah just hope for the best! 🙂
Aku orang yg sedih banget pas bangun pagi, hasilnya dah selese dihitung….kok bisa sih keluar dari EU? Kayak yg putus pacaran, rasanya ga percaya.
Ah apalagi kamu yg pernah tinggal disana.
Iyaa bener rasanya gak percaya.. kamu masih di Eropa mungkin nanti kerasa efeknya yah Yang, moga2 semua tetep baik2 aja dan aman 🙂
Di kantorku ada orang Irlandia, Skot sama Inggris (banyak lg yang dr Inggris). Satu yg org Inggris ini senyum2 sambil muter kantor bilang WE GOING WE GOING hari Jumat sore, umur 40 — yang Irlandia mukanya udah asem banget haha
Mereka pada vote ngga? temenku Brits yg pada kerja di luar negeri pada nyesel karena ngga vote.. mereka ngomong2 di facebook sih pada mau remain tapi ya nggak vote, mau gimana..
I found the result to be very surprising. I know it is unrealistic to expect that everyone is open-minded. However, I am not sure if those who voted for Leave were mostly driven by the economical issue (budget, etc) or by the immigrational issue. I hope it was mostly the former because if it was the latter, well, I would think we are really going backwards.
What’s saddening is that a lot of them (well at least what I read in media) does not seem to understand the issue well, there’s even articles about how search terms on “What is EU” spiked after the poll day. Sad isn’t it? but we can’t really fully trust the media these days can we? let’s just hope for the best! 🙂
Semacam friksi antara pure blood dan muggle ya…
straight outta harry potter novel 😮
Brexit ini suprising banget ya kak. Teman-temanku yang masih stay disana (dan akan segera kesana untuk studi) juga berpikiran seperti kakak. Satu hal yang paling dikhawatirkan adalah exit-exit ini diikuti oleh negara EU lainnya..
Iya hasilnya bener2 diluar dugaan sih.. semoga kedepannya tetep oke deh, aku masih pikiran positif semoga tetep oke 🙂