Gazette Life | Your Lanzarote Magazine

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Editor’s Letter

Strong Enough
Most of the time on Lanzarote the years pass without too much incident. This is a quiet, peaceful island, and it’s that peace and quiet that attracted many of us to come here in the first place.
And we’ve been coming here for decades, with many of us staying on to make new lives, set up businesses, raise families and live alongside the local islanders, as well as other neighbours from mainland Spain, Europe, Ireland, South America and countless other places.In many cases they’re more than neighbours – they are our friends, our work colleagues, even our life partners. The idea that the British keep to themselves is disproved every day on Lanzarote, where there are generations of kids who speak English and Spanish fluently and live in this multinational community like fish in water. I think most here will agree, and hopefully excuse my language, when I say that Brexit is a pain in the arse.

No matter which side you supported, you’re probably heartily sick of backstops and negotiations by now and just want it over with one way or the other. Well, in three months time, and barring unexpected developments, it will be, and we’re just going to have to deal with it. While the ridiculous scare stories about Spain sending expats back home are nonsense, it’s now clear that things will get a little more difficult.

That’s because, while we call ourselves expats, we’re also immigrants, and British voters decided that they want to make life more difficult for immigrants. The Spanish children of our Lanzarote neighbours who are in Britain right now will also find things a little more difficult. What’s sauce for the goose… However, it won’t be impossible. This island already has plenty of non-EU immigrants who manage to live happy, productive lives here. What we’ve got is too strong to be seriously affected by Brexit, or anything else.

And we’ll still be here, on an island so beautiful and enchanting that it makes every queue and official form worthwhile, an island where we’ve always been welcome and will remain so; an island where we know we belong.

Enjoy the year.