We’re sitting in her living room in the extraordinary house where she and her husband, Neville, now live – not far from the town of Confolens in Nouvelle Aquitaine.
We first ‘met’ Neville online through The 48% Facebook group, and when he heard we were going to be in France he suggested we pop in. Over tea we chatted about...
life in France and about some of the formalities and bureaucracy we will need to go through when, for example, we buy somewhere to live and when we register for pretty much anything. But it’s all part of living in France.
Neville is English and Berengere is French. They patiently answer our (many) questions. They are both so very kind, helpful and welcoming.
They had previously made their home in the UK and had lived there for over 20 years before moving to France at the end of 2016. They moved, not only because of what’s happening in the UK, but because of what Berengere experienced personally after the Brexit vote.
The reports of EU nationals enduring abuse from idiot Brexiters are sadly all too common, to the UK’s shame. Berengere’s experience was no different, and it happened on several occasions – but it went further than that:
In a supermarket one Saturday while they were still in England, an English guy overheard Berengere’s French accent while she was talking with her son. He began hurling abuse and obscenities at her – words to the effect that she should ‘go home’.
A security guard stood by and did nothing, so normalised has this kind of abuse become.
What made the security guard’s lack of intervention even more perplexing was that he himself was from a minority ethnic background and would almost certainly have endured similar racial abuse in his life.
But it wasn’t only the actual verbal abuse in the supermarket that left Berengere shocked.
She continues: “I think the real horror in this was that the guy who targetted me was clearly drunk or on drugs and clearly not a winner of life in a socio economic sense. For the last 25 years I would have absolutely defended his rights as a vulnerable person. On this occasion I found myself using my economic advantage and abusing him back. That was horrifying to me – I was horrified at what all this might be turning me into. It’s not who I am.”
As a result, she and Neville decided that the UK is no longer a place they want to live or contribute to, and they made plans to leave.
Thinking about how no one intervened on Berengere’s behalf at the supermarket leads me to think about recent European history: it’s an ever-present reminder of what this kind of ‘blind eye’ can ultimately lead to. Indeed, not so far from Neville and Berengere’s home is the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, the site of the worst massacre on French soil by the Nazis during the 2nd World War. Over 642 people were shot or burned alive in a matter of hours, including 193 children. The National Socialism that was allowed to flourish back then relied on a similar ‘turning a blind eye’ attitude and the same apathy towards nationalism that we’re seeing in the UK now.
As I listened to Berengere’s story, I felt deep sadness that she had been subjected to all of this. Since the surge in right wing xenophobia and hatred in the UK on account of Brexit, I have felt little else but shame in being British. Berengere’s story reinforces that further.
I would even go so far as to say that the treatment of EU nationals in the UK (with talk of lists and registration numbers) has wider parallels with the ethnic cleansing seen in other parts of Europe (and further afield) both during and since the 2nd World War. Yes, Neville and Berengere’s exodus from the UK was their own choice, but the alternative was to live in fear. Hardly a place for their family to thrive.
Sadly, Berengere is now also having to fend off a litany of abuse on Twitter from a bunch of idiot English men because she supported a Polish lady's account of hate crimes since Brexit.Meeting Neville and Berry at their home was an honour. It’s a pleasure to know them, and I wish them many happy “tramways and macaroons” moments in their new life in France.
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