not taking a chance - Page 2

Yes,John,Devon is a lovely county.Even though I was/am " a Grockle" I enjoyed living in both Paignton & Exeter.But I have served in the Armed Forces & so learned to be adaptable to where I happened to be.Then I had my own business which I have operated in 3 different countries.I do think that people who spend part time in another country,& this is only my personal opinion,cannot have the same view on life in that place as they are not fully committed to it.When my family came here it was make or break time because we had burned our boats back in the UK.Indeed we had a visit from the Guardia one early Sunday morning.This was before the time that Spain had joined the EU so it was mostly foreign retirees,often ex services who had spent a lot of time overseas,or people like ourselves believing enough in our business acumen to make good in a foreign country.Rightly we were told that if we didn't support ourselves we would"be sent back" to our own country.When Spain became part of the EU it was so nice to see young families coming from so many other countries because they could work here.I could not live back in UK because I would miss that multi-cultured society that is here.It sounds silly to say but I lived back in UK for a few months when I retired,on the south coast,although I kept a home here also,just to see what I felt.It was all "so English",there was little news about the rest of the world & no one seemed to have any contact with a foreign language,or even a person.Here I am amongst children who speak 2 or 3 languages & from varied family groups.Drunken Brits.are where ever they want to get drunk.You would know if you have lived in Glasgow or Liverpool or even Brighton.And it is not cheap prices to blame.

Agree with you wholeheartedly 

Spain would not rank high as a multicultural place for me. There is more diversity in some of the bigger Spanish cities. There will be pockets but in general most nationalities who live or stay here tend - in my experience - to stick together even within the same urbanisations. I live on the outskirts of Exeter which is indeed very diverse, but do not have the same experience on the Orihuela Costa. Just as many English communities resent large influxes of immigrants so will many Spanish people resent large numbers of non-Spanish residents.

One of the things that always makes me smile is when migrants to Spain talk about wanting to speak Spanish, interact with Spaniards and embrace all their culture and society bring. I have good friends who live here permanently who had such intentions and they went the same way as the next carafe of sangria!

The most trueful i have read in a long while
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I live in Alfaz del Pi which has a population of about 15000 & there are 100 different nationalities reported as being on the town's padron.I think that is quite "diverse"

The numbers on their own are are meaningless. I stand by what I wrote and the majority of non-Spanish newcomers to the area do not move there for any high-minded principles of multiculuralism or ethnic diversity. This can be seem empirically simply by walking around. There are little enclaves of non-Spanish everywhere. This forum in itself is a testament to that.

We have lived here 20 year no intention of going back to uk  Spain is our home no matter what  as for drunken Brits  take a look around at the hundreds of ex pat Brits working with our Spanish friends doing charity work,   Help at home  pink ladies  dog charity's   Looking after stray cats  and the list goes on