Trapped in between

Many participants spoke of feeling trapped due to the lockdown restrictions and the inability to travel as easily as they used to. For some this latched onto a loss of sense of belonging after Brexit and in an acute yearning to be somewhere else…back 'home' in Europe. Even during the pandemic some participants often travelled to and from Europe, whenever it was possible, and for a few this taste of 'home' prompted them to make definite plans to go back as soon as the right job and accommodation were found. While others just lived with their yearning and became resigned to living in between…. in a sort of limbo.

Andrea, German

'Before Brexit, the North Sea was a geographical feature of my life, but neutrally so now it has become a source of conflict.'

'Bits of my life have been separated and they are separated quite neatly into the British bit and the rest.'

Simona, Italian

'At the beginning of 2017 I relocated to easily…I am a single parent.. it's like a very complex situation.'

'I was really shocked, on the day that the (Brexit) vote came out but I didn't understand the consequence, because I left the UK before all the European settlement scheme and before the hostile environment in politics started with Prity Pattel.'

Ilma, Latvia

'and then obviously all the thoughts that are in the head and you are somewhere in Latvia with your friends and your family.'

'When you are like trapped and you can't make these decisions anymore, then you understand that well yeah just want to be somewhere else.'

'You realize that you're in a situation you don't want to be anymore, but you can't really change that straight way and that's why the mode of this change because in your head, you are somewhere else already.'