Sunday, 9 October 2016

Feeling foreign..

I remember doing a survey a few months ago and finding it quite novel that I was considered a minority in America as I was "of Hispanic origin."
Recently I have been reading some critical race theory from an american perspective and once again i am considered a "minority".
I fear that this feeling will expand and become ever more prominent in my life as Britain makes plans to leave the EU, let me explain why.
Despite my surname appearing british, my maiden name is distinctly Spanish, even having a double barrel name. I have a complicated relationship with the fact i am half Spanish, made even more complex by britex. My Dad came over from Spain in the 70s to find work, found love along the way and settled down with my Mum and had me and my sister along the way.
Since the divorce i have very little to do with either my dad or my spanish heritage. I was quite glad to have the opportunity to change my name when i got married.
However, i find myself in a strange place. Despite living in the UK all my life it seems that by some in this country I would still be considered a foreigner because of my "first generation" status. It also seems that the numbers of people who consider this is growing, even to include the government in recent days.
When i read the headlines, foreign academics banned from discussion s about brexit, I find myself wondering if that would include me, after all how foreign do you have to be?
All of a sudden, i feel like a foreigner in my own country, which is a strange place to be. I seem to be feeling more "Spanish" whatever that might be, and that feeling is very weird. It started when the referendum was announced, and along with it my change of identity. I have never really considered myself "British" but "European" As it fit me better. All of a sudden I started to question this and wonder about who i am and where i "belong ".

At the moment I'm happy to dismiss those thoughts as my paranoid anxiety, but the more i read and the further along we go along this track i wonder if those fears will become reality.

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