Brexit vote upended German teacher's life in Devon

In the early hours of 24 June 2016 the referendum result glowed on her phone: "52%". Lying in a rented bedroom in Devon, she saw the headline "UK votes to leave EU" and her first thought was not political but: "What does this mean for me?" She had moved from Germany the year before to train for a PGCE in Religious Education and had a first proper teaching job and a mortgage application in progress.

She had chosen the UK model of teaching multiple faiths side by side and felt she had finally found a place to belong. That morning, a staff car park had the slogan "Take back control" chalked across it and two Year 9 boys shouted, "Miss! Now you'll have to go home!" A tutor hugged her; she later recalled, "I’d never really thought of myself as an immigrant, but that morning, I woke up as one – same person, different label, and I hadn’t moved an inch." At the time there was no settled‑status system and, she wrote, "Just a vote, and 3.6 million EU nationals waking up to find the ground had shifted beneath them." Her PGCE would have no value in Germany; her British BA and MA earned by distance learning would not count there and teaching in Germany would have meant starting over.

Facing years of limbo, she applied for a PhD and had "three days to write a research proposal," saying she was "writing my way out in 72 hours," and was able to withdraw from the verbally accepted teaching post.

Key Topics

Politics, Brexit, Devon, Germany, Religious Education, Pgce