{"id":694953,"date":"2026-01-14T08:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T08:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/694953\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T08:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T08:07:11","slug":"a-moment-that-changed-me-the-brexit-result-came-through-and-my-life-in-britain-fell-apart-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/694953\/","title":{"rendered":"A moment that changed me: the Brexit result came through \u2013 and my life in Britain fell apart | Brexit"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early hours of Friday 24 June 2016, the result glowed on my phone: 52%. Barely a majority, but nonetheless a verdict. I lay in my rented bedroom in Devon, still in pyjamas, watching everything I\u2019d planned dissolve. When I saw the headline \u201cUK votes to leave EU<\/a>\u201d, my first thought wasn\u2019t political. It was: \u201cWhat does this mean for me?\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the final day of my second school placement, the culmination of my teacher training for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). I\u2019d moved from Germany the year before to train as a Religious Education teacher, convinced I\u2019d found a profession and a place to call home. In Germany, RE meant teaching Protestant children Protestantism or Catholic children Catholicism \u2013 separate lessons, separate truths. Here, I could teach all major faiths side by side, invite discussion and let curiosity lead the lesson. In a world pulling itself apart along religious and cultural lines, that felt like the better approach.<\/p>\n

But when I enrolled in the programme, I had no idea a referendum was coming. I\u2019m embarrassed to admit that I\u2019d barely followed British politics, and even as the campaign kept rolling, I couldn\u2019t imagine the leave vote winning. Great Britain outside the EU? It sounded like a thought experiment, not a future.<\/p>\n

So I kept planning \u2013 bought furniture for a house I didn\u2019t own, and pictured the years ahead. That morning, I had my first proper teaching job lined up, a mortgage application in progress \u2013 and then a sudden, sick sense that it might all vanish in the uncertainty of a country rewriting its terms of belonging.<\/p>\n

I drove to school on autopilot. In the staff car park, someone had chalked \u201cTake back control\u201d across the asphalt. Two year 9 boys spotted me in the schoolyard and called out: \u201cMiss! Now you\u2019ll have to go home!\u201d They were grinning, as if they\u2019d just won a football match. My subject tutor appeared beside me and wrapped her arms around me without saying a word. Another colleague joined in. That was when it hit me: I\u2019d never really thought of myself as an immigrant, but that morning, I woke up as one \u2013 same person, different label, and I hadn\u2019t moved an inch.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s difficult to explain that sense of freefall\u2019 \u2026 Anneke Schmidt Photograph: Courtesy of Anneke Schmidt<\/p>\n

Looking back now, nearly a decade later, it\u2019s difficult to explain that sense of freefall. Settled status exists. Visa routes have been mapped. But at the time, none of that infrastructure existed. Just a vote, and 3.6 million EU nationals waking up to find the ground had shifted beneath them. I knew I was facing years of limbo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My personal situation was precarious: the qualification I\u2019d spent a year earning had no value in my country of origin. To teach religion there, I\u2019d need to start over from undergraduate level, study theology for years, then teach the denominational model I\u2019d moved to escape. My BA and MA, both earned through distance learning at British universities, wouldn\u2019t count towards that. If I had to go back, I\u2019d be starting from zero.<\/p>\n

I spent the rest of the day doing calculations, not mathematical but existential. I knew the teaching job tied me to Britain, while a PhD qualification would be internationally recognised. I wanted to stay in the UK \u2013 desperately, actually \u2013 but I couldn\u2019t risk putting all my eggs in one basket. A PhD would let me \u201ctake back control\u201d of my own life, at least.<\/p>\n

The application deadline at Exeter University fell that same week: three days to write a research proposal. I\u2019d spent months preparing to be a teacher. Now I was writing my way out in 72 hours.<\/p>\n

Luckily, I\u2019d only accepted the teaching post, due to start in September, verbally. I could still pull out, even if it meant breaking a promise. Today, almost 10 years and a global pandemic later, I know the decision was right. I\u2019ve built a freelance career from home, shaping my own days and direction. My work still centres on learning and connection, though now through research rather than teaching. The freedom of movement I lost legally, I\u2019ve rebuilt on my own terms.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve even become a British citizen \u2013 which meant surrendering my German passport. Germany had stopped allowing dual citizenship with non-EU countries post-Brexit. The law has since changed back, but I was caught in the window when it didn\u2019t, and now there\u2019s no way to regain my German nationality. I don\u2019t regret it, though. When I arrived here, I saw myself as an EU citizen living in an EU country. Now, neither category applies. Brexit<\/a> transformed my sense of self. I had to actively choose Britain over Germany, and while I may always remain German by culture, I\u2019ve become British by conviction.<\/p>\n

But the referendum ruptured my sense of belonging. I chose to live in the UK; I speak the language and had the right qualifications. Whenever I hear about anti-asylum protests<\/a> spreading across the country, I wonder what it feels like to arrive with none of those things, not by choice but by necessity, and to be met with hostility. That is clearly a much more profound kind of limbo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the early hours of Friday 24 June 2016, the result glowed on my phone: 52%. Barely a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-694953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115892430030203496","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}