Rete

MS is Mississippi and it is considered the deep south. Yes, racism is all over but the south has a particular brand/type of racism that is unlike any you have ever known or read about.

atlanta355

There are a lot of jobs in your discipline, really good market right now. Some companies will care about the degree, some not. Key is to network so you get by the lowly person in HR who is just checking key words and boxes before passing resume up the chain. I would join a local industry group etc too. Relationships are the key to a great job and money IMHO.

School rating depends on district in GA, you must go to school in your district. Its normal to see bad school districts next to good ones. I would do a school tour etc before deciding.

bearclaire1

I understand, must be bad to witness it.

bearclaire1

Thank you, some great advice :-)

carcajou

I know Mississippi very well. There are nice aspects to parts of it, but I think the state is a tough ask for foreigners not already deeply well-versed in Southern culture and history. The poverty and lack of education in Mississippi can really be an eye-opener, especially compared to other Southern states, and the locals can be pretty insular.

Georgia will be better, particularly as OP is going to a place like Savannah.

The South is not homogeneous, and different clusters of states within it, have very different cultures and histories.

Pulaski

I have tried to find any clue as to why you might be concerned about this, but I can't see that you have said enough about yourself to determine whether you need on advice on how to "tolerate" it, or how to avoid becoming a direct victim of it?

What I will say though is that a lot of the divisions are actually about poverty, education, drugs, and gang violence, but get lumped together under the umbrella of "racism", so the situation is actually much more complex than the simple "black or white" issue, or rather "black, white, or hispanic" issue, that the media often portray.

bearclaire1

Yes, I totally understand this.

What I meant by it was that I am a 40 year old privilege white woman, but I do get offended when I see or hear people being attacked because of their colour or religion. I can't see myself tolerating it if I see this happening.
With regards to being a victim of it, I certainly won't expect being a victim of being white, but I do not know if I will be a victim of "another person coming over and stealing our jobs" mentality. Sadly I see a lot of this in the UK at the moment with Brits on Eastern Europeans/Immigration.

Pulaski

Agreed, and IME, fourteen years in NC I have never seen or heard that complaint ("stealing our jobs", and I work for a US corporation with very very few British expats), but I get positive/ welcoming comments on my accent almost every week, even after nearly sixteen years in the US! I sometimes feel that in some twisted, knotted-inside-out kinda way that I am welcomed as I am a fellow white, English speaker and therefore preferable to an immigrant who is Spanish-speaking or otherwise doesn't share a language and cultural history. Certainly being British seems to confer an automatic aura of class and sophistication in the eyes of at least some people, which I find particularly bizarre as my accent is more distinctively associated with Sheffield than anywhere else, when in London my accent seemed to have the opposite effect. .... It might be significant that I have also "gone native", owning a nice house, a piece of land, and driving a Mustang and a big truck.

To your first paragraph, you just need to get over it, you won't change it, but I'm living "just up the road" in NC, you likely won't notice much overt racism, unless you really want to go looking for it. .... Oh, and stay away from local politics! The practical implication of this is that there are parts of town that you simply won't want to go to, and should probably avoid driving through at night, but as I said above, objectively speaking that is more to do with poverty, drugs, and gang violence than "racism".

atlanta355

Not gonna happen in GA to someone from the UK, many, many people in GA can trace their lineage back to UK anyway so perceive British as being American. Its amazing how many people have British last names, way more than other parts of the US. Remember also the UK was aligned with the South and supplied them with goods to beat the blockade during the civil war so the bond goes all the way back. Some old houses in Savananah all the way up to Charleston are still in original UK family ownership. The state was one of the original colonies and you will see references to the UK everywhere (street names, schools etc). I would say being British is a district advantage in GA.

bearclaire1

Thank you all. I am sure we will have very little issues, and look forward to getting over there.

My son is looking forward to learning the history there, and RH/Savannah is a pretty good place to start.

bearclaire1

Hi,

HR has finally instructed the Immigration Attorney to start the L1B petition :-)

We now have a weekend ahead of us completing all the forms and gathering evidence of specialist knowledge...

One step closer.

bearclaire1

So it has taken this long for the attorneys to complete the petition, and was sent by FEDEX last night for premium processing, fingers crossed...