In 2015 I turned down an excellent job in the Netherlands - a country I see myself retiring in - because I had an even better job coming up in the UK at the EMEA campus of a major global corporation. Then Brexit hit, and our incompetent, populist government paralyzed themselves by making multiple contradicting promises, pissing off everyone else in Europe, presuming the most extreme implementation of Brexit imaginable to satisfy some kind of nationalist bloodlust, and refusing to entertain any kind of diplomacy or moderation. The company I was starting with waited as long as they could but ultimately had to throw in the towel - how could they have their EMEA headquarters in a country that wouldn't even commit to allowing foreigners visit, let alone live and work here - and they shut the campus and all the jobs moved to EU countries. Desperate I took a series of miserable underpaying jobs in shitty towns. It took me eight years to find a job that would allow me to pay rent consistently and even though I like my current role it pays about a third what I would have been earning, even before adjusting for inflation.
So I wish I'd taken that job in the Netherlands: I could have citizenship by now and reclaimed the freedom and opportunity that was taken from me.
