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.