How open to newcomers is your area?

[cally]

I'm a 3rd generation Californian. When I was growing up many/most of my friends parents had moved to California. We had an openness to newcomers. Politicians could move here and get elected. I see that changing now.

It's not uncommon for folks to brag about how long we've lived in the SF Bay Area or question a newcomers understanding of our community. There is a little distrust of outsiders, not much but a little.

I noticed the extreme of this when I lived for a short time in Boston. (I wasn't in school) I would make friends but it was difficult to get close to folks. Many had long time family connections and long time friends that required much of their time and dominated their social life. In contrast, in DC most had moved there recently so folks were trying to make friends and didn't have much family nearby. The same was true of Anchorage. Folks are trying to establish close friends because so many have moved there recently.

So I'm curious what it's like in other areas. Can a non-native be elected? Are you considered an outsider even after living in your area a few years? Has your area changed in the past 20 or so years?

[BOSSHOG]

1. I have to chuckle at your question

Overnight my town in Southwest Mississippi went from 13,000 population to 45,000 due to Hurricane Katrina. Things got crowded, traffic was hell but we are all getting along pretty well. The population has stabilized to about 25,000 as many folks have been able to go home but many are staying here permanently. I know this isn't the situation you may be referring to but a couple of towns just outside the most damaged hurricane areas on Louisiana and Mississippi got real big real fast and just about everyone is making it work.

[cally]

3. I had my blinders on when I asked this question

:blush: Of course, it's ridiculous when facing the changes too many are facing after the devastation. I'm glad folks are making it work.

[Arkansas Granny]

18. We had quite a population surge here in Arkansas, too, where

we welcomed about 70,000 evacuees right after Katrina. Estimates are that around 15,000 are still here, many planning to stay permanently, and are distributed all around the state. In the six months since they arrived, I have not heard any negative comments in the media or from the public.

[WeRQ4U]

2. In some aspects, yes. In others, No.

This is a rural area and the towns are small and spread out. While the community may welcome you on a superficial level, you can be rest assured that they are also wondering if you're a weirdo and discussing you behind closed doors. I see that a lot with the newer doctors in this area...especially those born in a foreign country. This town having a small state university does help a bit in that the people do see different individuals on a regular basis, but I still wouldn't advise going to one of the local dive bars without a local "sponsor" unless you want to get a lot of stares.

[KurtNYC]

4. NYC = open

but elected officials are natives.

[vptpt]

5. We're open to newcomers here

as long as they don't show their asses. A lot of times, we get people moving down here from the north, then they want to make fun of us all the time. Don't come into my house and insult me! Also, they think we're just a bunch of dumb hicks and that they can take advantage of us easily. We don't like that very much.

I'm in East Tennessee, by the way.

[cally]

6. Seriously? Someone moves into your area and

then makes fun of their new neighbors? Wow! Do you think that sometimes folks aren't making fun of you but that folks are interpreting it that way?

[vptpt]

7. I don't know

Certainly seems that way though. They make fun of the way we talk and the food we eat. Maybe they're just trying to figure us out, but they could find a more polite way of doing it. I've lived in different parts of the country, but this is the only place where I've seen "outsiders" (I don't really like to use that term...) treat the locals the way they do.

Then they wonder why their businesses aren't always welcomed with open arms by the people in the community.

[tenshi816]

13. I know exactly what you meant about this.

I grew up in Atlanta but went to college for two years at UTC. While I was there I had a relationship for nearly a year with a guy who had moved down to Chattanooga from New Jersey after he finished college up there, but only because his parents had retired and moved to Chattanooga earlier and he wanted to crash on them for a while because he couldn't find a job in NJ.

This guy hated Tennessee and hated the south generally, but it wasn't obvious to me at first because he took great pains to hide it. It crept in little by little though, and after a while it seemed that not a day went by when he didn't rant about how stupid southerners are (I was exempt because I don't sound very southern, plus when you're sleeping with someone it doesn't really pay to call them stupid). He made fun of everything about the south.

It got to me after a while and I broke up with him. Funny thing is, I got curious a few years ago and googled his name; this guy's still in Chattanooga and very right-wing, judging from one of the hits I got - he was interviewed in one of those "man on the street" things for one of the local TV stations talking about how he was an "ex-liberal" and making fun of people protesting the war. Even funnier thing: I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he still hates the south.

[SharonAnn]

14. I'm in East Tennessee and I'd say that we're not accepted, but

our money is.

Your description pretty well says it, we're not accepted.

As a matter of fact, the treatment is sometimes downright rude and offensive.

As someone who's fairly involved in the community, I find it interesting that a strong economic lifeblood of the community is treated that way.

[ReadTomPaine]

8. It's amazing how much a community is defined by this trait...

and how little importance i've seen people attach to it over the years when relocating.

Great idea for a thread, Cally!

[cally]

16. Thanks

I'm fascinated by cultural differences among US regions.

[SmokingJacket]

9. Very.

I've lived in the South and the West, and neither of those places welcomed newcomers -- at all. But here in upstate New York, we LOVE it when people from other places move here.

I think it's because there's no sense of regional identity. We don't get off on thinking of ourselves as "upstate New Yorkers" -- because who cares?

And when people from other states move in, it proves to us that we're not total idiots for living here, with the snow and the stagnant economy and the losing sports teams... :crazy:

[Armstead]

10. Hard to get to know, but stronger attachments

I live in semi-rural part of Massachusetts. People are cantankerous and sort of cold here on the surface.

I also lived in the south nd out west for a number of years. I found that people are more open and friendly out there and down there.

However, I also think that when you do connect to people in this part of the country, the atthments tend to br stronger and deeper and more long-lasting.

Out west I found that it was more fluid. Esier to make casul friends, but people also tended to come and go out of each other's lives more easily too. Sometimes it was because they move away, at other times it seems like connections are more casual and disposable.

[supernova]

11. Very open

to new comers. A large part of that is all the universities so close together. There have been students coming in and out for as long as anyone can remember. So that provides a good foundation for other types of crosss cultural activities. We just opened up a new China center to help NC business do business there.

I'm not saying some oldtimers don't get their feathers ruffeled now and again, but by and large the diversity salad works. We still have to work harder to integrate our new South American neighbors.

[Journeyman]

12. Whenever I hear people discussing "native" versus "non" in California. . .

I'm reminded of the opening scene in the 1939 film version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

A French sentry stops a Gypsy family as they try to enter Paris.

"Hey, you, only native Parisians allowed here!"

"Oh," says the Gypsy, "and how long have you been here?"

"My family has lived in Paris for 300 years!" the sentry loudly proclaims.

"Eh," comes the reply. "You came yesterday, I come today."

[cally]

15. I found Long Beach very proud of being native

Many lived in the same neighborhood that they grew up in. The whole idea of a Californian being concerned where you were born is ironic. I don't think a non-local could get elected to the school board or local office in some of those neighborhoods. I wasn't involved in local politics then so maybe I'm mistaken. Weird.

[Katherine Brengle]

17. agree and disagree about boston, and MA in general--

Looked at from a political perspective, we have a current governor who is not a MA native, and a current gubernatorial candidate who was raised in Chicago, but went to school and settled here in MA.

Romney was born in Detroit and went to college in Utah. Granted a lot of MA residents don't like him (myself included), but he still got elected.

As far as socially... one of my best friends moved here from Cleveland, OH, and another from Vermont--but I can't say how others feel...

I think in Boston it really depends on your social condition--obviously with the great colleges and universities (as well as elite private high schools and the like) that abound in the area, there are many students from other states and all over the world who call Boston home for a time. I would be willing to guess that among older age demographics, it may well be as you say, but I don't think this can be much different from most other places where people settle for a long time. We become comfortable with our lives and many people stop seeking new additions to their social circles later in life.