by More than three years later, Ana Telma Rocha still feels as angry as when she interrupted Sky News live on “Brexit”: “I’m Portuguese, I’ve worked here for 20 years and I don’t have a voice,” she said. , then, in an intervention that went viral. Now, more than three years later, and after immigrating to the UK at 21, the 45-year-old actress has turned her “anger” into a “constructive thing”: she has created a cultural cooperative “to make a big hole in ‘Brexit'”. ” and continue the exchange between Portuguese and English artists. From Trás-os-Montes, where he now lives.
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He packed his bags around November 2019, about three months after he spoke at Sky News because I “couldn’t face” what was happening. She says she was “marked” and accused of staging her intervention. At the time of the live, he was having trouble settling his situation in the country, but with “a lot of help” he managed to settle it. It wasn’t enough: “I can’t get over the shock. I can’t accept what’s happening.” Xambra Cooperativa Internacional de Cultura is the way to solve “the emotional problem” that this event, in addition to “falling badly”, caused. It’s a “community of British artists in a very desolate area”: ”We’re doing things between England and Portugal that don’t respect borders,” he explains.
This Tuesday, January 31st, marks three years since the United Kingdom officially left the European Union, after 52% of Britons voted for “Brexit” in a referendum held in 2016. The transition period was extended until December 31st. 2020 and It was in January 2021 that new rules for staying in the country were implemented: a points system, to attract skilled migrants. Criteria such as language skills, a job offer that matches the candidate’s level of education and a minimum salary of £25,600 per year weigh in.
Even so, in 2021, the UK resumed its position as the main destination for Portuguese immigration. According to the 2021 Migration Report, by that year around 60,000 people will have migrated, with 12,000 entering the UK. Between 2019 and 2020, the paper says, “immigration fell by around 44%, as a result of the combined effects of the pandemic crisis and ‘Brexit'”.
Also in 2021, the acquisition of British citizenship by Portuguese reached a peak: more than 2500 Portuguese acquired it. Here again the United Kingdom took the lead, ahead of France and Switzerland. According to the Migration Observatory, in the first three quarters of last year, 2,066 Portuguese people acquired citizenship. “This increase seems to be explained, above all, by the fears caused by ‘Brexit’ and by the reduction of the rights associated with the foreigner status that could result from it,” the document states.
UK immigration ‘still pays’
Helena Monteiro had these fears. Therefore, together with the recruitment team, he made sure that he landed in England at the end of December 2020, even though the original idea was to move only after “Brexit”. But if it arrived a few days later, it would have to be governed by the points system. So she only had to take “a language test and little else” in order to obtain the nurse’s PIN, which is mandatory for practicing the profession
After working in Belgium for some time, he wanted to move to England because he was “more comfortable” with the language. She is a nurse in the public sector and says she is satisfied with the change. Despite seeing some consequences of Brexit first hand: “It affected the hospital hardware a lot, there were some setbacks because some brands stopped being supplied here. But at this point everything is settled. There were also a lot of people who left when I arrived,” he says.
Because of the points system, Helena was unable to take her mother with her, as she said in P3, in 2021, that she intended to do. “He can’t learn English,” she laments. Family visits are also complicated: when I was in Belgium, I managed to receive family members. Now, she has to make the trips to Portugal when she wants to be with her family.
However, three years after the UK officially left the European Union, Britons appear to be reconsidering the decision. According to research he commissioned Independent, 65% of Britons—nearly two out of three citizens—want to repeat the “Brexit” referendum. The previous year it was 55%.
The same poll says 54% think ‘Brexit’ was a bad decision. up from 46% who said the same last year. 56% believe that leaving the European Union has made the economy worse. “The British realize that this was a big mistake. There are many things that go wrong. We miss them. As a society, as a democracy, people need to analyze how they vote and what impact the decisions have,” says Ana Telma Rocha. “Maybe ‘Brexit’ was a kind of examination, to realize that we need everyone, all together.”
What makes so many Portuguese people see the UK as such an attractive destination? “There is freedom of expression, diversity, we learn about other cultures. In Portugal we work with very little and when we are offered all the equipment we manage to achieve goals and push ourselves. [No Reino Unido] we have better salaries, better opportunities, life experience”, guarantees Ana Telma Rocha. Therefore, return is “always” an option.
For Helena, the change was “easier” than she imagined. “I plan to go back to Portugal one day, but even so, it’s worth being here.”
