As uncertainty hangs over Brexit, many Europeans are already voting with their feet and choosing to leave Britain
"You are a foreigner," Maria, who was heavily pregnant at the time, recalls the woman saying. "Your place is not here."
The 31-year-old, who asked to use just her first name, said she was now preparing to leave Britain later this year with her husband and two children, fed up with what she described as xenophobia, as well as the rising cost of living in London."After Brexit we could all feel the obvious feeling that we are not wanted here," Maria said. "I don't want my kids to grow up in this sort of environment.
In the year to the end of June last year, 145,000 EU nationals quit Britain, an 18 percent increase on the previous year, while the number of people arriving has slowed. They say they find themselves accused of stealing jobs from Britons and driving down wages, even though unemployment is at a four-decade low, or of overburdening health services.
On a good month from their work at a removal company, they can save about 500 pounds, enough for them to buy a house back home in Romania. They live frugally in a tiny studio apartment in Hampstead, London, with their two daughters.Elena and her baby sister take an afternoon nap.
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