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Thousands Of Miles Away, Some Tennesseans Are Watching The 'Brexit' Closely

A sign urging British citizens to vote to leave the EU.
diamond geezer via Flickr
A sign urging British citizens to vote to leave the EU.

Britishexpatsliving in Nashville have watched the referendum on the "Brexit"with interest — although for some, there wasn't much they could do about it.

Kevin Bourke, who moved to Franklin 10 years ago to work at Nissan, says he wasn't allowed to cast an absentee ballot because he's lived outside of the UK too long. But even if he could, he's not sure which side he would have voted for. He says it seemed logical to stay in the EU, but the British identity is very separate from Europe.

"It's like you're divided between your head and your heart," he says. "That's the real difficulty in this, and I'm glad I didn't have to vote because I don't think I'd like to have to make the decision."

Bourke leads a Meetup group for British expats in Nashville, with about 250 members, and he says their opinions on whether the UK should divorce the EU seemed split down the middle. But he says he doesn't foresee much impact on his daily life in Tennessee — although it will likely make travel to European countries more difficult.

"But realistically, am I going to retire in the south of France? Probably not," he says.

The change also may not have much impact on Tennessee companies with British ties, like Rustici Software based in Franklin, which was acquired by a UK company earlier this year.

CEO Tim Martin points out that the dollar is now stronger compared to the British pound — the value of the pound dropped after the vote — which means that Rustici's numbers will matter a little more. But there's "really little effect for us other than we're slightly more important in the context of the group," he says.

Meanwhile, Sen. Bob Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a statement today saying that the referendum will not change the "close partnership" that the United States has with the UK.

"A free people should choose their own way, and we respect the British decision to leave the European Union," Corker wrote.

Copyright 2016 WPLN News

Emily Siner is an enterprise reporter at WPLN. She has worked at the Los Angeles Times and NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., and her written work was recently published in Slices Of Life, an anthology of literary feature writing. Born and raised in the Chicago area, she is a graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.