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}\n\n/* @jsxRuntime classic */\n\n/* @jsx mdx */\nvar _frontmatter = {\n  \"title\": \"It takes half a Nation to ruin a Nation\",\n  \"description\": \"I landed at Heathrow airport the summer of 2006, one day I was interviewing in Dublin, to kill time I was on a tourist bus when I received…\",\n  \"date\": \"2016-06-27T10:41:13.657Z\",\n  \"categories\": [],\n  \"published\": true,\n  \"canonical_link\": \"https://javame.netlify.app//it-takes-half-a-nation-to-ruin-a-nation-5cdc390defa6\",\n  \"redirect_from\": [\"/it-takes-half-a-nation-to-ruin-a-nation-5cdc390defa6\"]\n};\nvar layoutProps = {\n  _frontmatter: _frontmatter\n};\nvar MDXLayout = \"wrapper\";\nreturn function MDXContent(_ref) {\n  var components = _ref.components,\n      props = _objectWithoutProperties(_ref, [\"components\"]);\n\n  return mdx(MDXLayout, _extends({}, layoutProps, props, {\n    components: components,\n    mdxType: \"MDXLayout\"\n  }), mdx(\"p\", null, \"I landed at Heathrow airport the summer of 2006, one day I was interviewing in Dublin, to kill time I was on a tourist bus when I received a phone call from \", mdx(\"a\", _extends({\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, {\n    \"href\": \"https://www.thoughtworks.com/\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"\n  }), \"ThoughtWorks\"), \" UK, they wanted me to come to London for interviews.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"My initial plan was to stay in the UK for five years, after 3 months of rain I asked ThoughtWorks to send me abroad, England is not easy for Italians.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"At ThoughtWorks I learnt how to be a better consultant and software engineer but also I met people from all around the world, like minded citizens of the world.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"I always found it easier to hangout with \\u2018\", mdx(\"em\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"foreigners\"), \"\\u2019: you have a few things in common, you are both away from your family, you did \\u2018\", mdx(\"em\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"reset\"), \"\\u2019 your life, you have inevitably fewer friends and a greater need to make new ones in the new country, some of the people I met 10 years ago when I arrived are still my friends, I invited them to my wedding (yes, meanwhile I\\u2019ve got married in Britain, I have a British wife) I consider some of them my extended family.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"I did live in a few different parts of the\\xA0UK: a few months York, almost a year in North Wales, most of my time in London, more recently I\\u2019ve spent quite some time in Somerset.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"I never felt unwelcome, perhaps because of the multicultural people I was hanging out, but also, being a consultant I had to meet a lot of \\u2018locals\\u2019.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Most of the time the initial small talk with a British person ends up on \\u2018\", mdx(\"em\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"oh I\\u2019ve been to Lake of Como\"), \"\\u2019, or \\u2018\", mdx(\"em\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"how do you cook a proper carbonara\"), \"\\u2019 or, \\u2018\", mdx(\"em\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"is it true that you guys don\\u2019t drink cappuccino after 11am\\u2019\"), \"?\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"There are plenty of ice breakers, with time my accent probably got a bit better, of course, I am not as white as your stereotypical Brit and I\\u2019ve a hairy face, but somehow I\\u2019ve managed to blend in.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"And then there is London, before London, I was living in Vienna, I went back there a couple of times, lovely city but I always came back to London thinking \\u2018gosh they really speak one language and they are monochromatic\\u2019.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"London is an economic, social, multi cultural experiment, in my limited knowledge it is truly the capital of Europe and probably of the entire modern world. I\\u2019ve been to NY a couple of times and I see way more division, way less equality, London is (or was now?) the place to be.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"So, I am rooted here, I bought a house, I have two dogs, a wife and more recently a daughter: in fact the day before the referendum my half italian half british daughter was born (sorry little one, it\\u2019s not the best time in history to be born).\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Long gone are the days when I could pack all I had in 5 or 6 bags and move, I\\u2019ve a job that I love at \", mdx(\"a\", _extends({\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, {\n    \"href\": \"https://www.equalexperts.com/\",\n    \"target\": \"_blank\",\n    \"rel\": \"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"\n  }), \"Equal Experts\"), \" and I am in charge of too many things just to leave.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"I don\\u2019t feel welcome any longer in this country, it is sad and frightening but how can you feel comfortable being an immigrant after all the talk in the media against immigrants? I can\\u2019t leave and I won\\u2019t leave, by now my house price has probably fallen, my pension value has gone down at least 20%, even my retirement plan to warmer shores with the GPB going down as it did might already be compromised.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"I made a mistake and I think a lot of EU immigrants made the same mistake: I didn\\u2019t apply for British citizenship, I always felt like an EU citizen, living on EU soil, I was wrong. I couldn\\u2019t cast my vote. How many of us made the same mistake?\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"At the hospital one of the midwives that helped us deliver our baby told us: \\u201CI am Romanian, I worked here for 15 years, I always paid taxes, I went to the polling station and they told me I couldn\\u2019t vote, why?\\u201D\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"There you go, the UK never fully joined the EU, otherwise there would have been different laws, like in other countries, after 10 years paying taxes in this country, why are we not integrated, why can\\u2019t we vote?\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Why does it have to be a proactive choice? Why do we have to swear to the Queen? 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