To ask how multicultural is the area you live in?

[Startingoveryetagain]

I'm seriously considering moving out of london, I'm mixed race and also have to DS's who are due to go onto secondary school in a couple of years.
With all the knife crime and violence going on I'm terrified they will get caught up in it all once they get a little older.

So I would like to get some information on where would be good to move to. I know it sounds awful, but I don't want them to be the only black child in the class as I do want them to have people around them who they cam also relate too, so where do you live and is it multicultural?

What else is important to you in terms of area? Do you need to commute to London for work? If not, what is your industry and job opportunities? Do you want rural? Would your children be unhappy if they are moved somewhere quiet for their teen years?

Small towns, villages will be very white. Where there is a non-White population, this is much more likely to be South or East Asian than black African or Caribbean in terms of heritage.

Bristol has fairly large black population but very concentrated in certain neighbourhoods - others will be very mono cultural - so you need to look carefully even at cities to decide whether they are of interest.

And....99pc of teenagers in London are not in a gang nor involved in crime. I know it is scary but remember that. Your sons will almost certainly be ok and are much more likely to be hurt being hit by a car.

If you don't like your current area of London perhaps you could move somewhere in the city? Is there something specific about local schools that concerns you?

Very. I live right on the edge of a large city (short walk from the city centre) in the north of England. It's often said to be the safest large city in the country and, from my own experience, I wouldn't doubt that. I walk around at all times of day and night: nothing and nobody bothers me.

It's fucking great. We'd love to have you

Plus of course larger cities further away, e.g. Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Nottingham, most of the West Midlands urban area, Bristol, etc.

Be aware that, whilst these areas have diverse communities, drive ten minutes away and you can be in a white, nationalist area. Nottingham and Sheffield have diverse communities, but move away from the centre and towards Mansfield, Rotherham etc, and you're in a different world (that you'd rightly want to avoid).

I'm in Essex - near Braintree. It's pretty white here to be honest.. I moved from North London 2 years ago. The other day I saw an Indian family walking into the development I live in, and I found myself commenting on it to DH in a "wow, look" type manner - I really shocked myself at how accustomed I'd become to living in such a white area... Time to move home I reckon!

Not Gloucestershire, either. My husband is a secondary school teacher and there are 7 black kids in the whole school here.

towards Mansfield, Rotherham etc, and you're in a different world (that you'd rightly want to avoid).

Really?

I don't blame you for moving. My DGS is a mix of 3 ethnicities and hopefully will move away from the white area he lives in to go to school. There is a multicultural area in our city, where he won't be the only brown face in an all white class.

Try the burbs
Just as mixed but way safer

Not very........as in its something like 97% white.

But we do have a multicultural group and multicultural youth club.

On a whole we all rub along well, no, it isn't a massively diverse area. But that doesn't mean people aren't accepted just because they're black /Asian etc.

Oxford. In primary school out of 30 kids my child was one of the 5 white english kids. Even then I think one of them was half polish. I thought it was fabulous they were from all over the world. Lovely place.

Our area of Peterborough is. I know it’s not a popular city—on social media— but it seems a fair number of people are moving up here from London as it’s safer and cheaper.

DS’s school is pretty mixed.

We're in mid Essex, good schools, feels pretty safe and fast links to London if you need to.

Bristol. I'd describe it as friendly and mlticultural.

@Dillo10

I'm in Essex - near Braintree. It's pretty white here to be honest.. I moved from North London 2 years ago. The other day I saw an Indian family walking into the development I live in, and I found myself commenting on it to DH in a "wow, look" type manner - I really shocked myself at how accustomed I'd become to living in such a white area... Time to move home I reckon!

I'm surprised by that. I'm just west of Braintree in a small-ish town and although its majority white its definitely nowhere near as white as that! DD has a handful of Asian, black and mixed race kids in her class, around a quarter of the class. I think the other class in her primary is similar.

Oh and in contrast to the above poster who is Braintree, we're in Chelmsford which is much more diverse, I agree that Braintree is pretty white. The schools of my DC, the classes are almost 50% white British, 50% BAME/other European. House prices and rentals more expensive in Chelmsford though compared to say Braintree, Witham or Colchester, that's probably down to the school's being better.

Came on to say Bristol as well. Areas in Bristol such as Easton, Montpelier and St Paul's areas all very multicultural. I live close to one of these areas and the schools my children go to are very multicultural with many different European and non European languages spoken.

I’d suggest checking out housing costs in parts of London where gang violence isn’t such a big thing, maybe a bit further out from the centre? It’s an easy way of finding somewhere that feels safer but is still multicultural, as long as it’s not ridiculously pricey which I know a lot of London is now!

The challenge in your situation is that you could move to another city with a sizable black community, but then you may well get the same problems.

At the other extreme you could move somewhere rural and run the risk of your children being bullied for being different.

I guess your ideal would be a town (rather than city) with a mixture of races rather than just white or black. Is that right?

I think looking for a commuter town which has expanded with a lot of new development (and therefore a new, mixed community) might be a good idea. Milton keynes maybe?

I'm in London as well (London Borough of Haringey) so yeah, pretty diverse, but as you're wanting out that's useless to you!

Why not move to a different part of London?

formerbabe it's locally known as chavley, outsiders call it crawley,

others just call it a total dump.

@ClaudiaWankleman

Where in London are you OP?

I live in what I believe to be one of the last bastions of multicultural, safe and (by London standards) affordable boroughs, although I feel like this is being threatened by the borough next door, which is incredibly hard hit by gang violence. A university once mapped the territory of the borough by gang - the results astounded me.

Ultimately I don't think just moving somewhere else would fix your issues. We've seen drug abuse move more and more into the suburbs and countryside, and inevitably the crime will follow that.

Sounds like where I'm from.

Where I grew up is very multicultural, white people are in the minority.

I live in Wallington

It's not that diverse compared to other places close by, Croydon for example, but it's pretty chilled, convenient and safe feeling

We live in Brighton, it's not that multicultural tbh but I've never felt the DC "stuck out".
(but we did purposely choose the more multicultural option when picking schools)

The part we live in feels very safe and friendly (compared to Croydon where we used to live)

@PickAChew

Not county Durham. My locality is probably the most multicultural in the whole county and it's still predominantly white and English.

I used to live and go to secondary school in County Durham. We did not have 1 single person in school who wasn't white, not 1.