horses for courses
I appreciate what you are saying; it is a matter of individual preferences;
1.lets deal with the concept of Bromley being a 'hole' in the midst of nowhere:
The Bromley area- part of Kent is not a hole in the middle of nowhere, but very close to the countryside- and some of the nicest ones you will find around the Greater London urban area. There is certainly no such equivalent in the 'hole' called GG Hendon Mill Hill or Borehamwood - part and parcel of the Israeli Ghetto.
Bromely and Beckham are well connected to central London - for communing there is a fast 20m service to Victoria or the City.
2. I know that the choice between the Ghetto and the wide world represented in London is individual. The big issue with the Ghetto is that you have very little initiative to get the opportunity to know people who are not part of your ethnic community. Even worse, you end up with a circle of friends originating from the same country you come from.
I live and volunteer in central London [no, it is not a --stan area; I wish you'd only know central London a bit before making such a flip flop comment like that- maybe it was made with a smile
.
A lot of migrants opt for this choice- they seek their own community on arrival for support and advice. The point is that so many of them can not or will not make the effort to integrate. This ends in isolation; if there are children involved, children get used to new schools and make friends , learn the language, so they would be OK, but their parents would be excluded from so much that is available here.
Even if you are being re-located to London for several years only, your experience of living elsewhere would not be as good as it might be if you opt for the familiarity and safety of the ghetto.
In my time working in an international bank, I have seen many examples [none from Israel- I never came across somebody from Israel] of families coming over here, sending their children to schools following their own national cariculum, but choosing to live all over London precisely to be able to experience living elsewhere. That choice is dictated by how much they could earn. Not everyone is a high flyer.
3. I do not see how long term saving gets into it; On the contrary, I said that if you choose the Israeli Ghetto you end up paying much more for housing and other services; if you decide to be a little bit more daring, do a little bit more homework, you can save money by living elsewhere, in perfectly respectable area [I wouldn't normally recommend Peckham or Newham to newcomers
].
As I said,it is a matter of choice and preferences. I am a bit disappointed that the leading tone in queries and answers to queries tend to emphasise the Ghetto and not the open wide world. After all, part of the London experience and attraction is the chance to sample something quite different from what you are used to- even for a family with children.
before I finish, you may be interested to know that in my time in London, I lived in Stanmore/Edgeware, Mill Hill, Arsenal, Elephant and Castle [the best experience and the best of fun of them all
and now in central London.
Regards from Central London
