How and Why it All Started

On the evening of the 23rd of June, 2016, Lydia and I were laid in bed watching the results of the Brexit referendum coming in.  Some of the early results were a little surprising, there seemed to be more 'Leave' votes than anyone anticipated.  We dismissed these as outliers. Everyone knew that a final result for 'Remain' was inevitable, and that as more results come in, the overall numbers would correct themselves.  It was getting late and Lydia and I were both tired.  We were confident that come the morning the status quo would be maintained, and we could all get on with our lives. But as we slept, this happened:

When we woke up and saw the news we were flabbergasted.  I ran the full gamut of negative emotions: disbelief, anger, sadness, confusion, fear, and many more.  The best analogy for my feelings I can think of, as a German living in my adopted UK home, is the following:

"I feel like an adopted child being told by my adopted parents that they don't love me anymore."

I was born in Germany to a German father and British mother, I have German citizenship and carry a German passport.  But the UK was part of the EU and that meant I had the same rights in the UK as any UK citizen (with a few, very minor exceptions).  All of a sudden I faced the prospect of being classed a 'foreigner' by the country that I grew up in.  I faced the prospect of losing my rights, the prospect of having to prove my worthiness to stay in the country that I considered my home.  I was suddenly the subject of a hostile environment. A hostile environment established by the British state and enforced by the British people. To be fair, most of my family, friends and colleagues were Remainers. But the British population in general were 'Leavers', and they now felt empowered.

Two and half years pass and I reach a point where I feel so disenfranchised from the country that I thought of as my 'home', that I start to seriously consider leaving the UK and returning to Germany.  But this was only an option if Lydia willingly and freely agreed that we should move as a family.

So in January of 2019 Lydia and I go on a short scouting expedition to Germany.  The purpose of the trip being to establish whether or not Lydia could accept Germany as a potential new home for us.  Lydia had visited Germany on many occasions in the past, but only as a tourist, and therefore only ever saw Germany through the lens of a tourist. On this trip she looked at Germany through the lens of someone who might live in Germany and raise a family there.

In front of Cologne Cathedral during our scouting trip.

Long story short:  While sat at Cologne/Bonn airport for our flight back to the UK, Lydia tells me that we should go for it! I immediately open my laptop and start looking for jobs.  Two months later I start working at SER in Bonn.