I will never forget the first time I suffered xenophobia

I had the worst time renting a car with a local Belgium car rental company. In fact, I wasn’t even able to rent one. Someone from a group of expats told me they are the Ryanair of car rentals… and it’s actually worse.

[PT-BR version below]

I decided to rent a car to enjoy the summer out in the woods. I did the whole process online with a small Belgian company, with whom I had rented a van a few months before to move to my new apartment.

Suffering xenophobia was never something that crossed my mind. Born in Brazil, I’m (very) white and I have blue eyes, and if I don’t open my mouth any Belgian would consider me as “part of the group.”

In fact, I’m a Portuguese citizen and it was a document from that country that I presented — next to my Spanish driver’s license. But in Belgium, prejudice is not only of colour, but also against any foreigner — and Portuguese perfectly fit the definition.

When I first said “hello” and apologised for not speaking Dutch he looked at me from head to toe. It did not bode well.