My parent immigrated from Nigeria in the early 2000s and I was born shortly after in 2002. I‘ll be turning 18 next year and I wonder if the England I’ve always known as a child will change when I become an adult. I have never experienced racism or discrimination thus far and I have always been loved and accepted for who I am by the communities I’ve encountered in my life.

But I am scared of the future.

I am scared of the unknown.

Nationalism is spreading widely all over the world and it has already seeped in the government of this nation. Will it not be long before I am segregated from my friends who have ancestry here just because my parents are immigrants? I do not know. No one really knows.

I do know one thing however. I was born here. I am British no matter what anyone else says. I have no other country “to go back to”. I will not leave because this place is my home. England has always been past and present. And I’m sure it will also be my future for a long time.

-Una, London