Why I’m Voting to Remain in the EU

Of course, there are the practical, pragmatic, monetary, and selfish considerations. I’ve seen lots of figures bandied about, erroneous on both sides no doubt, as to why the U.K. should or should not remain in the European Union. I sigh with impatience as immigration and the EU are yet again conflated — as if 50 percent of our immigrants were not already from outside the EU (a figure that would rise if we left), as if we could stop European immigration while maintaining our trade agreements, as some are hoping.

I am simply not convinced by the argument that we can have all of the economic benefits of EU membership without the membership itself, or the investment which that membership requires. But, in the end, this referendum is personal, isn’t it? That’s why the interviews, the interactive graphics, the poll trackers all feel so futile. Each person will vote with their gut. And my vote to remain has a lot to do with the person I am.

I grew up in Northern Ireland. I lived through very little of “the Troubles,” in large part because of the huge efforts of those on both sides seeking peace. I remember the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, and experienced the stability of the years that followed. So my heart sinks when I think of leaving the EU — of the border controls we would build to stop freedom of movement through the U.K.’s only land border with an EU country, and of the smouldering tensions this would fan effortlessly into flame.

“The vision of border controls plays into the hands of those who have yet to realise the armed struggle is over,” Sir Hugh Orde, former chief constable of the Police Service Northern Ireland, wrote earlier this month. “Any step backwards is a really bad idea.”

I am the wife of a Spaniard. We met one summer six years ago when we travelled from our respective countries (no visas) to Bordeaux, France. We lived there for a month, with a Belgian and a German, each giving tours of the cathedral in our respective languages to hundreds of tourists a week. If I’d had to get a visa to go to Bordeaux, I probably wouldn’t have bothered (and the idea that I would then not be with my husband gives me vertigo to say the least). But what really gets me isn’t the inconvenience of a visa — it’s the fact that the Belgian boy and German girl became our friends. And that Spaniard became the most important person in my life.

So much of this referendum is predicated on fear – fear of what will happen if we leave or if we stay, fear of the faceless masses looming beyond our borders, fear of the people within our borders. I vote to remain because those people are my friends, our friends. Because I know I do not need to fear them.

I am a follower of Jesus Christ. Christ who was a refugee. Christ who not only loved the outcast but welcomed them to eat with him, and restored them to society. Christ, who said, “Love your neighbour as yourself” — not “Leave your neighbour to sort out their own problems.” Christ, who is love.

I recently saw a comment, “If the Leave campaign was about how Britain could contribute more to the world if it left the EU, then I’d be interested. But it’s not. It’s about how Britain can give less and take more from the world — and how it can keep the rest of the world out.” And, to me, that’s it. If my vote is not about how we can care more for the vulnerable, and how we can contribute to the good of our communities and our planet, then to me it is worthless.

The campaign to leave has revolved around what we get, what we lose, who we hate, and who is hurting us. That is what wins if we leave. I cannot reconcile that with my calling in Christ. And I, in conscience, cannot vote for it.