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Comment by ChuckNorris89 | Hacker News Reader

>As someone born in Eastern Europe I feel that Brexit has been specifically targeted at our ethnic group. [...] and I feel offended.

Meh, what you heard were mostly just the voices of a loud and stupid minority, not he norm in the UK. I don't see any reason to feel offended by that vote result, it's nothing personal.

As an Eastern European myself, I found the UK to be the least discrimating and most fair towards immigrants than the other rich European nations when it came to glass ceilings for foreigners in their society.

Eastern Europeans, and foreigners in general for that matter, hold many top positions in companies in the UK, whereas this is much less accepted in traditional German, Austrian, Swiss, French, etc. companies for example, who are far more elitist and openly discriminatory sometimes [1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih5k7g8vUmE

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Sorry to point out that it seems to be a loud and stupid majority, as their side won the referendum 52% to 48%.

(western European here)

So just because 52% voted leave, you assume all of those who did, did it because they had something against Eastern European immigrants?

That's preposterous.

The funny and insanely ironic thing is, I know many Eastern European and other immigrants in the UK who became British citizens and also voted to leave just to thin out the competition they faced for jobs and real estate.

They had nothing against any nationality, but their narrow minded views and primitive survival instincts kicked in knowing there are many like them out there wanting to immigrate just as they did before and made them pull the ladder after them since they assumed that less immigration will give them more leverage in the future.

The irony is not lost on me, but people are rarely rational when voting and mostly do it on emotions.

Most EE immigrants did not get British citizenship because there was no need for them to bother. I call BS on this anecdote of yours. I personally know dozens caught in the Brexit mess and of those who were able to vote in the referendum not one voted leave.

>Most EE immigrants did not get British citizenship because there was no need for them to bother.

"Need" in what way? Sure they didn't need it to live and work there, but traveling with a British Passport gives you way more liberties abroad and less discrimination than some EE ones (I lost count on how often police, public and private institutions in Western Europe would treat me like shit when I showed my EE ID vs my friends with Western nationalities).

And since getting a British Passport is basically a ruber stamp once you satisfy all conditions (which are very simple to meet) and it doesn't force you to renounce your existing nationality like some other countries do, most got it as their second passport.

I think a lot of people underestimate the value of having a powerful passport and what a difference that can make on your experience as a foreigner abroad (and inland as well).

> just the voices of a loud and stupid minority

More like 52% isn't it? Granted not every one who voted leave did it to keep out the Poles. But it makes you wonder how many did and which smiles at the grocery store are forced...

All smiles at the grocery store are forced

That was a figure of speech of course. Make it the office or the bus or the pub. Same thing.

>But it makes you wonder how many did and which smiles at the grocery store are forced

Do you seriously expect you deserve genuine smiles from all service employees? And that if some don't do it it must be because of your nationality?

Did it occur to you that maybe some don't smile because they work shit dead end jobs, for shit pay, dealing with shit people as customers every single day for months/years on end?

> More like 52% isn't it?

You're correct it was 52% - however that does not represent 52% of all the public - it represents 52% of the public who turned up to vote. Obviously that still carries the majority verdict for the referendum.

There were 45.5 million people registered to vote in the referendum in 2016 and 28% of those registered voters didn't bother to turn up to vote. The leave vote equalled 17.4m voters. The remain voters equalled 16.1m voters. 13 million people didn't care enough to vote.

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