Did you/would you prioritise MC lifestyle over diverse area?

[whathaveidonetomydc]

I need to preface this by saying I'm white, dc are mixed race and visibly Muslim with Muslim names. Didn't want to post on main board as I want opinion/experience of people who need to consider racial/religious minority issues. Feel free to report if the post is not welcome.

We live in an area of UK where I'm from which whilst it's getting more diverse, is nothing like larger cities like London, Manchester, Leeds etc. Housing is much cheaper and whilst we aren't wealthy we lead a fairly MC lifestyle. The dc are in a grammar school where non white dc make up maybe 5% of the school. These children are very respected, they are high achievers, role model pupils and disproportionately win school prizes etc. Never been any issues and in fact the school bent over backwards to make a prayer room when ds started (he was the first Muslim pupil). All good.

We have a small Muslim community that is very diverse so the dc are used to being around different cultures. It's on a very micro level though. A number of years ago DH decided we needed to be nearer to 'our' people and we rented a house in Birmingham for the summer with the view to move. The area wasn't clean, we were told there was a lot of anti social behaviour and that the secondary schools were rubbish. We couldn't afford private so after weighing everything up came back. Several years later we did the same in Bradford, but for the same reasons as Brum decided to come back. Dh's parents are both dead so we haven't regularly gone to his country, so the dc don't feel particularly tied to it.

We were in London recently for a wedding and I couldn't help but feel very sad that my dc (and me) have missed out with regards to the complete melting pot of diversity. I'm not going to repeat what dd said, but basically they all agreed that they prefer to live in an area which is predominantly white. Both me and DH are very sad about this and feel we have failed them. In our bid to give them a 'better' life this seems to have had a negative effect on how they view people who look like them.

Can anyone relate to this personally, and what can we do? We have spoken about moving to London or even Manchester but this would mean a much smaller home, probably a flat, which the dc would not be happy about.
Any experience and/or views welcome.
TIA.

You've said in your op that you've moved to more diverse areas multiple times, but returned to your current area, as the areas you moved to clearly didn't benefit you enough to stay. Would moving again just bring up the same issues as before? If your children (who sound older now) like living where you are, I don't understand the issue? They can go off and explore the diversity of the UK and abroad as they get older, and don't need to have that on their doorstep to feel "at home". I think maybe you're overthinking things. If the children were much younger and struggling socially, or worrying about not fitting in, I'd understand the urge to move, but it sounds like they enjoy living where you are, have a good education, and lifestyle, not sure what you'd really benefit from in changing that? We live in a predominantly "white" area, and it isn't very diverse, but we travel, and explore other areas on long weekends and holidays, and the children are very aware of different cultures. The few families of ethnic minority in our local area are treated with huge amounts of respect and inclusion, and don't seem negatively impacted at all by being in a predominantly white area. They are respected and loved like every member of our community, and at school, they certainly aren't treated differently. Our best friends are mixed race, and the children have not once commented on the fact they have different skin colours, or differing cultural beliefs.