To move to Scotland because of Brexit?

[Fucksandflowers]

DH is seriously talking about it.

We’ve always liked Scotland anyway...

DH is English, but looks foreign and gets an astounding amount of racism, at least weekly.

Genuinely fearful of the apparent growth of right wing politics in this country, DH in particular is worried if Farage gets in the racism is going to get even worse.

Anyone who lives in Scotland, what is it like?
Are people generally tolerant?
Any areas that are particularly nice and too expensive?

Scotland on paper is a very welcoming place- we've taken in a lot of refugees per capita compared to other parts of the uk in recent years. However it is not at all ethnically diverse and racism is rife in parts. There were reports this weekend of some "foreigners " trying to talk to a young couple and sell them drugs in a town on the west coast, which led to a witch hunt and a mob gathering outside a house where these "foreigners" were reportedly residing. The police have had to move the house's occupants to safety and they will have to be rehomed- they have not been charged with anything and there's nothing to suggest that they had anything to do with the alleged drugs encounter. They unfortunately had brown faces which makes them stick out like a sore thumb in these kind of communities and even if your family had lived here for three generations, you're the "foreign" family.
Cities aren't so bad but still not great.

DH never experienced any issues at all when he lived with me in Glasgow for 6 years. On the other hand, I have, now that we live in England (I'm Scottish). The latest comments were 3 days ago. It's not nice.

Expensive is very subjective, I know Lochgelly is the cheapest place to buy in the UK but is a very depressed ex mining town. Here is the lowest price flat I found. Edinburgh is very expensive, but might seem cheap to someone from London.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-80951741.html

I'm biased, as a Scot, but yeah I couldn't give a shit about where people are from, and the people I surround myself with are similarly minded. Aberdeen (where i lived for 15 years) had (it seemed) an influx of immigrants a few years back, and life became more diverse. I'm all for this, and happy to welcome anyone who is going to be an asset to the country.
I now live (much!) more rurally, and in a far less culturally diverse place (you may have seen it touted as the happiest place to live, in the UK) and although less diverse, it is an extremely tolerant place, with a large number of English people settling here. Generally speaking, I haven't found people to be horrible to anyone who's English, of a different race, or both, but my experience is that of a white Scottish woman.
Having lived in England? Yeeeeah, I experienced some shit due to my nationality/accent/DH daring to wear a Scotland rugby shirt. I don't see the same in reverse here, but fully admit it may be because I'm not looking for it. There are arse holes everywhere OP, and I'm sorry you and your DH are having difficulty. The UK is fucked as it stands.

My Scottish PILS are the MOST racist, homophobic, misogynistic, parochial people I have EVER met. And both have had a university education.

My dh wants to go too. I want to wait until the DC have finished school.

His view is Scotland is likely to ho for independence and the rest of the UK is going to have to start again anyway. Go to a country which is more closely aligned to your values and help build that rather than stat in England and seethe. Hope etc.

Should add my dh is half Scottish .

I am Scottish and can assure you Sturgeon is not well thought of at the moment and her views only represent a small percentage of Scotland. She does not listen if she doesn’t like the answer to a question which she has proven with trying to railroad Scots into another referendum which a recent poll should nearly 80 percent of people surveyed did not want certainly at the moment anyway.

As for living in Scotland I like it. I live in the Highlands and it’s safe, good schools, has very low unemployment and lower crime rates. However we will be affected by BREXIT in Scotland too.

On the subject of racism I am very sorry to hear this is happening to your dh. Sadly no matter where you go there will always be a bigot but I haven’t heard of much off it where I live. Although I have no doubt it has happened but I know plenty of foreign families who have been welcomed here.

DH is Scottish and his parents still live in Scotland. We regularly visit Fife and Angus. We live in London. I’m a Londoner by birth but not ethically British. On our trips up to rural places in Scotland I find that I can walk into places and no one turns around stares as they do in some parts of rural England however I can’t deny the fact their are very few brown or even non white people wandering around. The post brexit reality is a serious concern for us and the prospect of an independent Scotland with EU membership is very attractive for us. I have yet to come across anyone in London who has voted brexit. I almost wish London and Scotlamd would join forces as no brexit zones.

I am Scottish and can assure you Sturgeon is not well thought of at the moment

I am Scottish and can assure you she is.

See how that works? It sort of depends who you ask doesn’t it?

My Scottish PILS are the MOST racist, homophobic, misogynistic, parochial people I have EVER met. And both have had a university education.

My English PILS are exactly the same. It's a source of agony for FIL that his grandchildren are half Scottish and not 'pure' English.

To be honest, it's not just this kind of thing that makes them awful, they're just really not nice people. I have no idea how DH ended up so lovely.

I lived in Scotland. I had a lot of people hating me because I am English. The first.time it happened I had been in Scotland 20 minutes. Made me so upset.

OP - if you want to be in the EU, why not go to Ireland? (Though again, it will be far less racially diverse).

Or could I suggest Spain? Don”t worry - there’s millions of British on the coasts!

we've taken in a lot of refugees per capita compared to other parts of the uk in recent years.

I notice how you use per capita to make it seem more liberal. Using the 600 Syrian refugees as more welcoming is why the subject is a lot more murky than what some like to admit

Nothing really to add about whether moving to Scotland would help or not. I just wanted to say I understand I you feel OP. I'm English my husband is English as in he was born here/ is English in every way except that his parents are foreign born so he doesn't look English. I know what you mean about the increasing racism and I am very scared about the rise of the far right.
We now have DD who is a beautiful mix of us both and the thought one day she might be on the receiving end makes me feel sick.
My issue is the far right seems to be increasing in many countries. I often think I would like to move just not sure where

Having said that I 100% agree about rich English people coming in and buying up all the houses in places like Pitlochry, Orkney and the islands completely changing the tone of the area and making it hard for locals to afford to get houses

Same everywhere - beautiful rural places in England being bought up by richer people moving out of London (Cotswold areas being one), but it's free market. I've been called an 'off comer', 'incomer', 'townie' and 'newbie' in various parts of England, north and south, for daring to buy a home a local sold me.

People will always move to the nicest areas they can afford and will move to areas where they will have better prospects - was always thus. You can't ring fence areas to make locals sell to other locals (and sometimes people just have to move out of their local areas - as lots of us have had to do).

It absolutely does depend who you asked and maybe it’s a regional thing I don’t know.

Justanother, Scotland is famously a sparsely populated nation. That is why I used per capita- precisely to underline the faux liberalism. Thought that was pretty obvious.

I'm Scottish, live in Scotland. Don't be fooled by all the anti-Brexit rhetoric you hear from Nicola Sturgeon. There are vast numbers of Brexiteers in Scotland.
You will also find an amazing amount of dimwits who hate all things English. I kid you not. You'll never meet anyone with a bigger chip on their shoulders than a scot. Don't be fooled.
And then there's the drinking and the swearing and the huge sense of entitlement. Don't come, you'll only be disappointed. England is a far, far better place.

Do it if you want to but have you considered how much worse the weather is? I just couldn't do it.

I'm sorry you are expericing racism, I think it very much depends on where you live all over the UK. London is probably the most multicultural but I live about an hour outside of London in quite a racially diverse place and I think racism is rare here.

Hi OP - come to Scotland; you'll love it! We're a very friendly lot. I have many English friends - none of whom have ever been verbally abused here. Ever. Given the oil industry, I find it very hard to believe that Aberdonians in particular are intolerant of nationalities other than their own (as a PP had inferred). It's literally a melting pot of nationalities up there. The last sign you'll see when leaving Scotland is 'Haste Ye Back'....... and we mean it. 💕

I notice how you use per capita to make it seem more liberal. Using the 600 Syrian refugees as more welcoming is why the subject is a lot more murky than what some like to admit
Where are you getting 600 from? It was 2,000 back in December 2017.

www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2017/12/5a3947c94/scotland-sets-example-resettling-2000-syrian-refugees.html

Scotland is no different to the rest of the UK and will also be exiting the EU when it goes ahead. I think to move here because of Brexit is barmy.

I'm English and have been here for a few years. I've had no outright abuse for bring English, but I do see people look over at me when they hear my accent.

The one thing I never expected (I live in the central belt) is the scale of the sectarianism. I don't know if it's just because we're close to Glasgow, or if it happens all over Scotland.

As for Nicola Sturgeon...well, sloping shoulders would describe her and her minority government. They never seem to do anything, except fob off things they don't want to do as it'll give them a bad name. They cut council funding then leave it to the councils to deliver the bad news. Incompetent (have had to out off the transfer of benefits responsibility for years) and ineffective. They're propped up by the Greens and propose taxing people who park at their workplaces. Schools are chronically underfunded as is the NHS, and results are sliding.

Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful place and I love it here in many ways but, if you don't have to move here, don't.

You'll never meet anyone with a bigger chip on their shoulders than a scot

Yep - racism exists judging by that comment!

Given the oil industry, I find it very hard to believe that Aberdonians in particular are intolerant of nationalities other than their own (as a PP had inferred). It's literally a melting pot of nationalities up there. The last sign you'll see when leaving Scotland is 'Haste Ye Back'....... and we mean it

What utter cobblers and I know Aberdeen very well. I quite like Aberdeen but suggesting oil has made it a melting pot of nationalities is just nonsense.