Immigration in Scotland

[McClef]

Suppose you are 25 years old and grew up in the United States. You will have missed out on 25 years of grass roots "pop" UK culture. You won't know any of the soap operas, what music was cool, or what teams did what, when. You won't have grown up with kids TV, Top of the Pops, the Beano, or Christmas Pantos. You won't know any of the TV presenters, you won't get most of the jokes. You will have very little in common with your peers. Ultimately you will be a stranger in a strange land. And by-and-large that is how you will be treated.

I try and avoid the soaps like the plague, can't remember the last time I read the Beano or attended a Christmas panto and Top of the Pops died after a long decline. You are guaranteed a fair number of American programmes and plenty of US news (far more than the other way around!) and even many of the ads are done with American accents. We have had a large influx of EC immigrants from Eastern Europe who seem able to fit in, at least once they remember that we drive on the correct side of the road...

I have even chatted with a Pole who lives in Aberdeen and loves kilts.

Assimilation isn't always the problem it's sometimes made out to be.

[Mike1]

You are guaranteed a fair number of American programmes...

My ex-fiancee's sons were big fans of CSI and they were amazed to learn I had actually spent time in Las Vegas. It made the show a bit more 'real' for them, to know the city is more than a television set.

To be sure, there are various things that are completely different between the US and Scotland. Everyone was amazed to see me eating food with a fork. I used the front, or concave side of the fork, whereas they use the back, or convex side. And drinking my coffee and tea with no sugar or cream was another oddity for everyone. Coins drove me crazy. I can spot a £1 or £2 coin in an instant, but the other coins had me confused. It's amazing at how something as simple as reaching in my pocket for 37p could take that long.

But if you allow yourself to be drawn into the culture of wherever you choose to live, then these minor differences will soon go unnoticed.

[sharpdressedscot]

Plus, it's fun to learn about other cultures.

This threads been good help, for a possible future in my head.

[Cynthia]

I've lost track of how many times I've been asked by someone in Europe if life in Texas was really like the show Dallas. I wouldn't know.... I never watched it

Actually, I'm like that to this day because I really don't watch a lot of TV or movies. I hate reality TV and I've never seen an episode of popular shows like American Idol. I have no clue who the popular musicians are these days and don't know a lot of the actors that everyone babbles about.

[Pleater]

Although I have only lived in England and visited Scotland and Wales on holidays, I think it is fairly safe to say that you need to move around and sample different areas before deciding about a country.

Districts only a few miles apart can be very different - very different crime rates, attitudes of people to newcomers/foreigners, safety at night, availability of fast food after midnight, drink sales in supermarkets can be curtailed in city centres (many supermarkets only close from late Saturday to 10am Sunday then 4pm Sunday to Monday mornings. They were selling alcohol all the time, but changed when requested by police.)

It's a bit like the weather, if you don't like what you are having, just wait a few hours and you'll get a change. If you don't like where you are living move ten miles and it will be completely different - though of course in both cases, it might be worse than what you were complaining about.