Brexit and me

Well, that's it, guys. Britain is out. As a proud resident of the EU since 2008, losing one of our biggest players hurts. But shaking my head should be where this all ends for me, but for what I just did earlier this week.

I got a job in England.

And still, everything should be fine, right? I'm an American. My visa requirements don't change when the UK jumps ship.

The thing is, I've been living in Denmark for a year, a country for which I acquired a visa to go with my job, and then my French boyfriend followed. He was able to freely move here, to job hunt with equal rights to the Danes, as an EU citizen. But language barriers can be a big hurdle, so the past year hasn't offered many opportunities to him. And then this UK-based job appeared. Suddenly (well, less than suddenly—the interview process took five months), we had a chance for a fresh start in an EU country where he spoke the local language. My job guaranteed my visa, and as an EU citizen, he could follow freely for his own job hunt, just like any other English local.

Today I'm left with a sensation half way between a punch in the gut and the feeling of teetering on the brink of an abyss. I have no idea what comes next. The UK will still be EU when we arrive, but the cogs of Brexit will be in motion. England and France are so close that there's sure to be some good terms negotiated. For goodness sake, there's a tunnel that connects the two countries! But how will English employers react? With an economy in crisis and the future rights of EU workers unknown, how many Englishmen will jump to hire a Frenchman?

For a week that had begun so upbeat, this really throws a wrench in the works. Why, England, why?