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Topic overview

Cristina Ruiz’s article “That Uncertain Feeling: An Italian Living in London On Brexit Britain” explores the topic of being an immigrant in Britain in the context of Brexit. Brexit is the name given to the process of the UK leaving the EU following a 2016 referendum on the issue.

To explore this topic, Ruiz uses her personal experience and looks at British attitudes towards immigrants. At first, Ruiz talks about her shock when she found out most British citizen decided to vote to leave the EU (ll. 11-13). After that, she looks at positive attitudes towards immigrants in Britain (ll. 19-20; ll. 16-21; ll. 89-96). Additionally, she focuses on how London art and culture tend to be more open to immigrants (ll. 50-51). However, the writer also focuses on the negative attitudes rooted in the prejudices that the British have towards immigrants (ll. 68-69; ll. 69-72; ll. 78-85), including her own experience with feeling excluded by British girls in her school when she first came to the UK (ll. 45-46).

The stories Ruiz uses in her article are meant to show readers what it feels like to be an immigrant in UK after the Brexit referendum, including both positive and negative aspects. She talks about feeling uncertain about her future and that of other immigrants (ll. 13-15) but also about how immigrants feel rejected because of the referendum result (l. 99). The article ends with Ruiz returning to the idea that immigrants feel unwelcome in the UK (ll. 117-118). She also argues that some will leave, while others will no longer come to the UK, which will be a loss to the country. In fact, throughout the article, Ruiz often mentions the downsides of the UK leaving the EU. This topic is explored by showing how immigrants contribute to the economy by paying taxes, how they form a majority of the staff in nursing homes or the health system in general, as well as t...