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What a Brazilian Woman Learned With an Illegal Albanian Immigrant in The UK
In almost 30 years of my life, I never heard about a country called Albania. And I come from an Italian family and have Italian citizenship. The first time I met an Albanian, I was ashamed of the fact I never heard about their country, mostly for the fact that it is so close to Italy. But a good thing about the fact that I didn’t know anything about Albanian people is that I couldn’t judge them.
I am an immigrant in the UK after moving here more than five years ago, and I wrote before that being an immigrant means different things to different people. Every single immigrant is unique. Unfortunately, when you come from a different culture, people will judge you, mostly because of an idea that they created in their minds about your country and your culture. You are not a person. You are a nation and therefore care on your shoulders their stigma.
In the UK, as a Brazilian, I haven’t been judged too much because the Brazilian community in the UK is not that big. On the other hand, in Portugal, where the Brazilian community is huge, Brazilians suffer a lot from prejudice and discrimination. In summary, the bigger the connection between countries, mostly historically, the more likely the presence of judgement.
