Thursday seemed like a normal day for us. We rode the tube, worked, and went to the market. The next morning we woke up to a very somber city of London. We were sent home from work early or told to take the day off because no one could see to focus on what was really happening: the United Kingdom was leaving the European Union.
A couple of months ago, before I embarked on my journey to London, my professor sent us an email explaining the referendum vote would happen while we were living here with some links telling what exactly it was. I didn't think much of it until I was actually here.
I've been in the city of London for one month and every person I meet asks, "why are you guys voting for Donald Trump?" Which is when we tend to enquire whether they were "in" or "out" when it came to the referendum. There wasn't much campaigning in London for those supporting Leave, except for the boat fights outside of parliment, because the very liberal city voted 59.9% remain. That explains why everyone I encountered was voting to remain.
It seemed to us that young people wanted to stay and older people were ready to cut every tie they had with the rest of Europe. When the results came in, we were right. About 34% of people 65 and older wanted to remain compared to the staggering 72% of adults 18-24, according to Mirror.
The economy is the first thing to fall following the vote. We watched the Great British Pound jump up to $1.50 USD the day of the vote, only to fall to the lowest it's been in 30 years, to $1.32 USD. Many of us were encouraged to go withdraw as much money as we could afford because the exchange was so low.
Also upon waking on on Friday morning, we were greeted with the prime minister, David Cameron, resigning. In 2011 Cameron promised to hold the referendum vote if he remained prime minister in 2015. Following the voting results on Friday morning, Cameron said the the UK would need fresh leadership to embark on their new journey.
The 16 million in total who voted to remain have since started a campaign to have a second referendum because there was no recount. In order for a petition to get attention of the government it must receive 10,000 signatures. To be considered for debate by parliament, it must receive 100,000 signatures, according to the parliament's website. A petition was started immediately following the announcement of the results and has hit three million signatures as of June 26th.
Scotland wasn't too happy with the decision, the entire country voted to remain (62%). As did Northern Ireland (55.8%, p.s. Ireland and Northern Ireland are two different countries!). Several media outlets reported that Northern Ireland and Scotland would try to reject the decision to leave the EU, however the Metro set everyone straight saying it couldn't be blocked, just held. First minister of Scotland has said it is "highly likely" that there will be a referendum vote to separate Scotland from the UK
In a few words, the UK leaving the EU, was basically them saying "get out" to any immigrants. The whole thing has been compared to Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign because he wants the U.S. to be pure Americans. Although nothing is set in stone yet, it's still very hard on them and their families.
Alongside the immigrants, the biggest consequence of the Brexit is that many migrants will be affected. While the UK is a member of the EU, people are allowed to freely move between any country in the European Union to live or work without much paperwork. Now, many are concerned about their future in Britain.
With the Brexit, a lot more eyes will be following the election knowing it could mean a lot for more than just the U.S..
