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As A Woman Of Colour, I'm Thinking Of Leaving The Country
“I just want to pack up and leave”.
You’re probably familiar with this sentiment by now, and I am sure someone in your life has said that to you in the past 10 months.
That’s quite possibly because, here in the UK, we are not only facing one of the highest covid-related death tolls in the world and a mutant strain of the virus, but Brexit – and its many implications.
Unsurprisingly, this potent combination has left some of us worried about our future in the UK, and whether things could possibly be better elsewhere.
I’m a British Muslim woman of Pakistani origin, and I know I’m not the only one thinking about leaving for pastures new.
Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and Brexit was a short summer where race appeared to matter. Yet, while we finally opened a national conversation about racism and xenophobia, discrimination, inequality and a lack of diversity, the virus hit Black and Brown communities disproportionately – an ironic reality. Now, months later, the conversations seem to have taken a backseat, while minorities continue to pay a heavy price just for existing in the UK.
Maybe being an outsider in a country that is not your home would be an easier existence than this.
It’s hard for Black and Brown Brits to detach race from their lived experience of this pandemic when so much of it is related to it. Feeling othered and alienated in day-to-day life is hard enough as it is – but it’s only exacerbated by the additional worries so many of us are facing, such as homeschooling children, or experiencing endless lockdowns in isolation.
What’s more, in Brexit-Covid Britain, unemployment is set to spiral upwards this year, especially once the furlough scheme ends in April. Redundancies reached a record high in August to October 2020, according to the ONS, and this was before the latest round of coronavirus restrictions.
In short, the economic impact of our Brexit-Covid present is going to be long lasting. And as the theory goes:...
