Brexit: It’s not just the immigrants who will leave
I just spent five days in Tibet. Not quite a movie title but at least it was five days without being asked about the Referendum vote — something that had consumed most of my waking hours since the realisation on that Thursday night of which way the vote was going.
Unusually, I checked the news every day while I was away. Watching the waves of recrimination, the disintegration of our political system and the vacuum of uncertainty from afar took on the quality of a bad dream.
Shockwaves echoed through our team too. We’re a global company. Of the 100 of us based in London, 50% are British; a third are from mainland Europe. Most of my colleagues were genuinely shocked by the result. Many of my international colleagues now feel uncertain and unwelcome in a country they called home until a few weeks ago. One colleague — a 2nd-gen immigrant, born and bred in East London — received an email in response to some comments made about the benefits of immigration in a post from our CEO. That email — from an educated professional — accused him of occupying a role that was by rights theirs because they were British. Seriously. I had to read it twice because I did not believe what I was seeing.
It’s difficult to get more white, middle-class British than me.
Born in Shrewsbury to working class parents who believed in the power of education as the force of social mobility, they invested everything they could into our education. Many would consider my upbringing privileged. In many ways, I was lucky.
And it was an upbringing pretty representative of middle England. Until I was 16, I’d only met one non-white person: one of my friends had a white dad and a Caribbean mum. She experienced a kind of racism peculiar to a private girls’ school at that time. Then I went to boarding school. I didn’t fit in with the British girls but found a home with the international students: completely different from me in culture and upbringing, but the same in every other way. Since then, in studies and work, I’ve enjoyed being part of international communities.
To be honest, I’d never really thought about it until now. The fact that we were different nationalities was never important. We never noticed it. Our focus was on what brought us together — shared passions, shared beliefs.
For the past few years, the difference between how I feel and how family members and British friends outside of London feel has become searingly obvious. I’ve heard them practically speak verbatim Daily Mail headlines — uttered with conviction and little evidence. Sometimes I tried to counteract the argument but often our views just felt too diametrically opposed for debate to be constructive. That’s where I’ve failed — and on a broader level, where we’ve probably failed as a nation too.
I understand the arguments pro-Leave. Particularly on immigration. A friend who was teaching in Greater London had a class where 90% of the students spoke English as a second language or not at all. I get that if your child does speak English and is in that class that you’re going to feel underserved by your own country. Our basic infrastructure from education to healthcare is not only at breaking point but is designed for another time, another society. It needs investment and reimagining to meet the needs of the UK of today. If the Government believes that immigration is beneficial to the country, then investing in an infrastructure that encourages integration rather than perpetuates division is key.
I understand the fear that has become entangled in our views on immigration. We’re scared of the unknown: we don’t see the individual, we see an anonymous threat to what we know and what we’re comfortable with. So we put up walls — metaphorical and physical. On the other side of that wall, I know how some in the immigrant communities in East London feel excluded and unwelcome in the country they’ve chosen to build their home. Somehow we need to figure out how best to break down those walls.
Because immigration is essential for every country: it prevents stagnation, underpins economies and drives innovation, creativity and growth.
Why do people want to come to the UK? Because of its potential for growth. Because they feel they can contribute to that — and yes, benefit from that contribution. And do immigrants really contribute? Well, more than a third of FTSE 100 CEOs are foreign nationals and at the other end of the company scale, more than a fifth of start-ups here are run by foreign entrepreneurs.
But this is not just about the talent that comes into our country. The world’s best and brightest may choose to study and work elsewhere. The thing is though — if we lose our international talent, we will lose our home-grown talent too. Without international talent, the UK becomes a lot less attractive to lots of British people who want to build companies, who want to innovate, who want to create the future.
I’m fully expecting comments along the lines of ‘ just leave then’ in response to this post. That’s the joy of living in a country where we value free speech. And yes, the UK will not miss one PR person leaving: many may see it as a benefit of voting Leave.
But what about the real talent? The people that shape our present and our future? The UK will miss them.
By Jo White, Global Communications Director, TransferWise.
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