Southerners and Midwesterners reaction to European immigrants (transplants, property tax)

[opossum1]

Originally Posted by Screenwriter70

That ex-Southerner sounds like an idiot. Sure, there are a lot of fake people around but I don't think rural types would turn against a person upon hearing an accent, especially if they're European.

Perhaps their view is affected by the way their family is. My understanding is that their family is very hardcore-Southern-oldtimers and were very mad that this person married a "yankee" from New York State. Perhaps they're basing their view of entire South on their extended family. Also, this person is in their 60s, so they're speaking from old-timer standpoint.

[Foamposite]

Originally Posted by opossum1

Polish are Eastern European folks, I disagree. Normally there's Western and Eastern Europe division. With adding Central Europe region designation, yes, they can be fitted into that, but normally it's just Western-Eastern. When people think of Eastern Europeans normally it's about former Eastern Block countries.

The USSR disolved a long time ago. Poland is considerably more developed than most of true Eastern Europe.

[opossum1]

Originally Posted by Foamposite

The USSR disolved a long time ago. Poland is considerably more developed than most of true Eastern Europe.

Not really that developed...and mentality too, is rather Eastern European.

[opossum1]

I think there's very strong xenophobia in some places and unfriendliness to outsiders which might not be specific to one being an immigrant, just general unfriendliness to anyone who doesn't seem "local" (though I think that when they hear a foreign accent it strongly adds to this attitude). Northern Minnesota is definitely one example.

The South seems to be actually way friendlier and more genuine than the North, despite what they say about the South.

[Enean]

Yes, let's always listen to what "they" say. The ubiquitous "they." If people don't realize that there is no such thing as "they", I'm sorry for them.

[opossum1]

"They" are the majority though.

Oh lucky ones born knowing it all about the world and places they never been to...they don't ever have to listen to what "they" say, know-it-alls.

[Enean]

Originally Posted by opossum1

"They" are the majority though.

Oh lucky ones born knowing it all about the world and places they never been to...they don't ever have to listen to what "they" say, know-it-alls.

Assumptions about people in the South and Midwest abound, and it gets maddening, after a while. We are educated here, speak different languages, have some of the best schools in the country, and have a great plenty of immigrants. We are not sheltered, have the Internet, and know what's going on in the world, believe it, or not. One doesn't have to be a know-it-all, to be offended by some of these threads.

[Enean]

I live in a very small city in Wisconsin, and it is only 80 percent white. Fourteen percent of the population here is Asian, and the rest a variety. Unless you have been to every town in a given state, you can't know how people react to foreigners. Here, they're our neighbors.

[Serious Conversation]

I live in northeast TN. People would be curious about the accent, but it wouldn't be a barrier to anything.

[Claytonian4]

The Midwest has plenty of European immigrants and has been host to them going back to the mid 1800s. Every Midwestern city and state’s citizens are majority European ancestry (non English or Scotch-Irish), especially German and in the Upper Midwest Eastern European descent.