BREXIT has meant Agnieszka Swida has given up on buying a house in Scotland even though she has been here for 13 years and has a good job with the Federation of Scottish Theatre.

She says she is saddened by the Leave result and frustrated she couldn’t vote despite being allowed to in the 2014 indyref, when she voted Yes.

“Brexit makes me a little bit sad and I don’t understand why my vote counts in Scotland but not in the UK when I am paying tax.

“In the Scottish independence referendum a lot of people voted No because they were told being part of the UK was a condition of being part of the EU and now they are losing this.

I feel Scottish voices are not heard. In the theatre world people are worrying about visas for performing and not being invited to work in Europe.”

Swida added: “It is a huge disruption for everyone and as a couple it means we have completely given up idea of buying a house just now”

She and her Greek partner have permanent residency in the UK and Kostas, their 17-month-old son – who they jokingly call their Brexit baby – was born here.

Swida arrived in the UK in 2003 from Poland to study for her second masters. She lived first in St Albans, studying marketing, but moved to Edinburgh a couple of years later with her boyfriend.

“I am originally from Krakow which is the size of Glasgow and a university city so there is a lot happening.

“It has amazing theatres and night life but St Albans is a commuter town for London and I could not find myself.”

Within six months of moving to Scotland she had a network of friends.

“People here are really friendly. In Krakow I had a lot of friends but in St Albans it felt like starting from scratch. Edinburgh fixed that.”

Here she met a lot of fellow hillwalkers and now loves spending time in the Highlands.

As a marketing and communications manager with the Federation of Scottish Theatre, Swida says she is impressed with Scottish theatre, particularly for children.

“When I joined one of my colleagues persuaded me to go to children’s theatre with her.

I said I did not have a child but she told me she didn’t either so we started going and it is just phenomenal.

Now I am seeing many of the productions for a second time – but this time with a little one. It’s great because I am familiar with them already and can spend a lot of time watching his reactions.”

The family would like to make their roots here more permanent but feel they better see what happens with Brexit.

“It makes me despair a bit,” said Swida. “I just can’t see the point of it.”

What concerns her is whether some of the hostility shown to immigrants during the Brexit process will continue.

“It is not as noticeable in Scotland and I don’t think it will be an issue here, but we will just have to see what happens,” she said.