Can we as an Asian family move to a rural area?

[discopisco]

Just that really. We're currently living in London and are both of Indian parentage. DH has been grumbling about hating the rat race for a while now but I've ignored him (I'm from a small mill town from the north and couldn't wait to get out of there). However, we've just had our first baby and I feel like we're already outgrowing our 2 bed flat. To buy a bigger place in our current area isn't financially possible now or in the near future just on DH's salary. So, I've been looking at property prices where we'd want to move to (close but not too close to where I grew up) and we'd be able to afford a very big house there. However, my worry is racism. I grew up somewhere where there was a very clear white vs Asian divide which resulted in subsequent riots. Would we be mad to move to the rural outskirts of those areas? I love London- despite its many failings- and don't want to be isolated location wise if we were to move or have bricks thrown into our windows, be ostracised in the local area and our child bullied at school. Are my worries justified or am I being paranoid?

There are lots of pros of moving:

Family links
Familiarity
Lots of house for our money
Greenery

Cons:

Potential (most definite?) racism
Crappy schools (we'd probably have to go private)
Potential drop in DHs salary
Missing out on London life and all it has to offer

Would it be worth moving considering the above? Or should we stay out?

Part of me says to keep hold of our flat as once we move out of London we'd never be able to afford to move back but the other half says to go and live our life as best as we can while we can. Would appreciate any help, advice, guidance!

Is that why there's so many racism-connected threads! I hadn't spotted the date.

There were only two children in my class in primary school who weren’t white...guess what- I only noticed they were a different race after I left school! We’ve know each other since we were 4 years old! I’m not sure why it only occurred to me recently but I can only assume it’s because I didn’t view them as an ‘other’.

It's completely normal for young children to ask questions about different skin colours. I really don't see what that has to do with racism?

I'm sorry but you do come across as very snobby. London is absolutely not exempt from racism in my own experience and from my friend's experiences too. Most British cities are melting pots of culture/race these days and your OP comes across as very sheltered and naive.

FFS, what's with all these threads being reanimated?

ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE

What about the West Midlands? Lots of Asian families here, areas with good schools, much nicer that London, lots of culture, surrounded by countryside can be in London by train in just under an hour.

My friend and her DH are mixed ethnicity. Live in a village, kids go to a village school never had a problem.

Like anywhere you get back what you put in. It will depend how much you integrate yourself into village life, joining groups, going to the church fete, meeting people in.m the local, etc put thatxit trie whatever your ethnicity

London really is the melting pot.Dont be fooled other places aren’t particularly like it.

It does depend where you live I suspect. Even in the smaller villages here there's a significant Asian population and they feed into a secondary with over 1/3 Asian students on the edge of the city (very good). We have the advantage of being only an hour from London but also the advantage of house prices at about 1/3 of London suburbs. Pay is lower on average but only because there are not the high salary banking jobs etc - if you are a dr, teacher, shop worker etc you earn near enough the same. Prior to living here we lived in a tiny village and there were 3 Asian families from which the kids integrated completely, it was a shock moving here and the Asian kids weren't allowed to freely socialise after school - this is key, kids really don't care about skin colour but if xxx isnt allowed to have friends home nor allowed to go to parties then they won't integrate (my DD's friends parents admitted to me they couldn't see why she needed friends because she had her cousins but they let her come to my house)

Some rural schools are crappy due to underfunding - the school settlement favours urban schools. There is also little choice as to which one you send you kids to because of the even more crappy bus services.

disco it depends on the rural area. I doubt you would get bother in Hebden Bridge, bit in other areas yes. Some of it would be ignorance but some of it would be nasty. I am white but not British born & I get the classic "but you are OK - you're one of us" comments all the time when I pull people for being racist. There would be people like me who think it is overdue to have a more diverse population and others who would dig their own grave so they could roll over in it.

Ffs it's a zombie thread!

I live in a tiny village in the Home Counties. As far as I know there is only one Indian (definitely from India) family here. I have never heard of any racism directed towards them, they have children at school and are invited to/attend as many (if not more due to the people they socialise with) social events as I do. I like to think they've never had any problems and I would be very disappointed if they had. I've never had any questions from my child about their classmate looking different-in fact they've told me more about 'X's family from America/Spain/sweden' purely because to them it's exciting.

We’re a mixed Indian/Scandinavian family and we live rurally in a small village. We live and integrate with our community and never had any problems.
I the opposite where true and we were to move to an Indian populated area I would be very concerned of racism because we are mixed.

I live in a small welsh village, between Cardiff and Bridgend. There are Asian families living happily here, great schools too and the housing is relatively cheap. Have you thought about wales?

@UterusUterusGhali, it wasn't Flowerpot who reanimated this thread - check the date of her post.

ZOMBIE THREAD

There is no doubt that most places are much more diverse these days so I think it would be easier than in the past. However, I think you are right to think about how welcoming different places would be. Hope I’m not stating the obvious here but local councils usually include information on ethnicity at ward level on their websites which might help. I’m not saying that’s a foolproof test - just an indication of how diverse a place is. As you say, diversity does not always mean there will be good community relations.

Rachelover40 is right that outer London might be an option in terms of house prices and good state schools but obviously you are not going to be able to make a huge leap in terms of the type of house you move to.

I do travel a bit for work and, having always lived in places which are very mixed, I do think that high employment levels always make it easier for lots of different people to live together - hence some of the tensions in the former mill town where you grew up.

I think renting first for a few months is a good plan for everyone moving somewhere where they don’t already have links. You can then get a feel for what it’s like and have the advantage of not being in a chain when you buy. Good luck!

Just looked at date at the beginning

This is the reanimation, odd that they didn't start their own thread
cherryandplum Thu 18-Apr-19 22:59:11
Hi
If we had to choose between Darrick wood in Orpington or midfield or Edgebury Primary school in Chislehurst . Which one should I go for.
Looking to move closer to these schools .help please

Thanks SpinneyHill. That explains why it came up in trending. No opinion on the schools but Orpington better for location in my view cherryandplum