Being Asian in Scotland

In Edinburgh I doubt many will care/be bothered. Tend to get students from all over, very multicultural. Difficult from me to tell as a white guy though. Let’s see what others closer to your ethnicity have as experience

You are more likely to encounter ignorance without hate behind it (stupid questions and assumptions), rather than outright aggressive racism. So, it might still be upsetting, but maybe not scary. Of course, it only takes one incident to have an impact, I'm sure.

It's really hard to say what your personal mileage/resistance will be for that sort of thing. However, Scots are generally welcoming.

My wife is from singapore. We lived in glasgow and now live on the west coast. Shes never had any issues due to race

I am a South Asian woman, and have lived in Edinburgh before, now though I have moved further north. Honestly speaking, till date, I haven’t had any bad experiences per se 🤞🏼, but I can’t speak for everyone. Having said that, there are good and bad people everywhere and I genuinely feel that as a foreigner it always helps when you go somewhere without a lot of expectations because it is easier to feel disappointed if for some reason things don’t turn out the way you want to. That’s how I think at least.

All in all, Scotland has been wonderful for me, not only because of the lovely locals but also, because I have gotten so many opportunities to meet people from different ethnicities and cultures, which for me is one of the best bits about living in such a diverse country.

Hope you will enjoy your time here as much as me. Wish you luck!

I don't really know what you expect as an answer.

Most of Scotland consider themselves welcoming to all ethnicities. This is likely to be your experience for 99.9 percent of your time in Scotland. but im not going to pretend that there aren't racist shitheads, there definitely are, and one experience could tarnish your entire opinion on Scotland and it's people.

Personally I'd say come on over, you'll love it, but be ready for shit weather, darkness most the year! Edinburgh is absolutely gorgeous, but quite small for a city.

You will run mostly into ignorant curiosity at most - you may find old man pubs saying things like “you are great but…(something stereotypical)

Other than that (my partner is from Lebanon) it will mostly be curiosity and people telling you everything they know about wherever youre from.

People here will be quicker to defend you than to attack you (not everyone)

Even the hardcore racists (minimal) when encountered by someone not white are oddly accepting when its a person in real life - they cant handle their own prejudice when “the other” is there.

You will be fine and have a fantastic time. Even though its a highly majority white country, the majority dont care and only need to know your drink order :)

Like most of Scotland, Edinburgh is pretty white (90%+) and I've had black visitors in particular who've said that this can be a bit unnerving if you're used to more ethnic diversity. People of south Asian ethnic origin make up a significant proportion of the rest but there are also quite a few people who are Chinese, particularly amongst the student population, or of ethnic Chinese origin. So if you look east Asian, odds are a lot of people will assume you're Chinese but it sounds like you are ready for that. You definitely sometimes hear reports of racist incidents involving open hostility but thankfully these seem to be fairly rare and most Scottish people would rightly regard such behaviour as appalling. More likely that if you have any issues at all it will be that sometimes you may encounter a degree of ignorance or stereotyping or be seen or treated as exotic. That said, I think it's likely that you will find people overwhelmingly welcoming, a bit curious or just indifferent. Really hope you enjoy it here - I'm pretty sure you will!

There are racists, like everywhere, but they are the minority and if you were getting hassled in public, I'd expect people to help you out.

My best friend is half filipino, and so are a few other of my friends they've always been accepted here where I'm from in the North East.

Honestly dont get me wrong there's probably a good few bawbags oot there just like everywhere els but as a whole we're no racist we don't care like that. We're more a if your sound I'm sound kinda place.

Like any city there are bad apples, but also many great people. Edinburgh has a pretty vibrant Asian culture, almost a third of the students at Edinburgh Uni are Asian, and there's plenty of bubble tea shops and restaurants from China, Korea, Japan, Macau, Nepal, Vietnam etc. I never met a central Asian there, but you don't tend to get many central Asians coming to the UK besides some afghans. The vast majority of people you meet will be very friendly and welcoming because Edinburgh is a very cosmopolitan city.

That being said when I lived in Edinburgh I did encounter two incidents of racism against asians. Once I saw a racist guy randomly scream at an asian man he passed on the street, and another time the Japanese restaurant across the street from me was attacked and vandalised by a few teenagers. These were both during COVID, which led to an increase in hate crimes against Asians across the country.

It's definitely possible it's something you'll encounter, but I wouldn't say it's particularly worse than other places I've lived in. It's such a beautiful and vibrant city that it would be tough to spoil even if you're unlucky enough to have a bad experience like that.

I think you’ll be ok. If you had said you were from Aberdeen you might have got a different answer.

r/MoveToScotland may be helpful

Nope! I hope you enjoy moving here. I’ve lived in Glasgow my whole life and you’ll be perfectly accepted, to the point I don’t think people will really care. We also have lots of fantastic Asian districts and restaurants catering to people from all sorts of areas which is greatly appreciated because of the fantastic food. Hope it all goes well for you.

There isn't really a big central Asian community in scotland. In fact most of the time people say the word Asian here they mean Pakistani or Indian. I'm sure there is some small communities of people from the same place as you however.

Most places will be fine.

If you see a small town or village covered in Union Jacks, perhaps tread carefully. The highlands and islands are pretty welcoming on the whole, but there's certainly a few racists hiding up there too.

I'm in Glasgow. Indian, Bengali & Pakistani roots are deep here. I would say over the past 10-20yrs tho there has been a massive upsurge in students from China and nearby and a lot of influx from Kurdistan, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, eastern Europe and Africa.

I'm in Govanhill which I think may be one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the UK, the food is awesome and cheap, but most of the thousands of east Asian students live in accommodation over the river in purpose built blocks with plenty east asian stores and restaurants to choose from.

This kinda thing does still exist, and time for me to go into "But not all men" mode :)

East Asian racism was very, very common in the 80's & 90's ime but much rarer nowadays.

My daughters are british Asian [Chinese Malay]... I moved them to scotland in 2015 from England. When they visited England post covid they got told by a white person to 'stay away from them or they'd get covid' .... They won't live in England again. At the suggestion of University in England from my own mother, one of my kids said 'Why would I love BACK to a country where every day is filled with hate for me? whether its my skin or being gay. Im hated. SO no I wont be going to England for Uni.'

My eldest went to Edinburgh to visit the Uni to see if they want to consider it next year. They got very emotional seeing so many chinese people. 'There are so many people there like ME'...... She cant wait to move to Edinburgh. Its the biggest goal she has, I think even Uni is secondary to wanting to live in Edinburgh.

25 years ago you’d have felt out of place but now even in small towns there are diverse ethnicities. Scot’s (or rather Caucasian more specifically) are the majority obviously.

You should be perfectly fine but even better if you have a thick skin and can shrug off the odd (racist) arsehole you’ll meet.

East Asian in Edinburgh here. I've been here for about 3 and a half years and I haven't experienced very blatant racism yet, and at most they're microaggressions, such as assuming you speak Mandarin and talking to you in it just by looking at your face. It's happened to me with both white people and East Asian Mandarin speakers. Sometimes you'll also get asked "are you Chinese" instead of "where are you from" which I've always thought was a little rude. It's little things like that, nothing major. That said I'm also not a woman so your experiences might be different.

There are quite a lot of people from Kazakhstan (and other central/east Asian areas like Buryatia or areas with people who could be mistaken for east Asian to the uninitiated, like Kalmykia) in Aberdeen and I've not heard any horror stories from them.

My wife has experienced multiple incidents over the past 15 years everywhere she has lived in Scotland including Edinburgh and Glasgow, with the most recent being her, our son and her mum being screamed at on the train with pure hatred over the colour of their skin. Noone came to defend them either, as people here have stated will do here, even as the man cornered my wife and son in their booth threatening harm. Came completely out of nowhere, and she's now terrified of using public transport without myself present as this has happened on far too many occasions now. (Last week, police are involved).

She also has her background constantly misidentified and judgements made due to this. Even when corrected most people say something along the lines of "well you're all the same anyways".

The worst she encounters is the "curious" taxi drivers who use their "interest" to make small racist remarks and pull apart anything she says. This especially rials them up when they learn she's studying Scottish Gaelic at university. They don't like someone who isn't white is studying this "dead and useless" language. 

The only time we, as a family, never experienced any form of abuse or wayward looks was when we lived in Glencoe. Small towns still have their issues, and can be as bad as the cities, but 1 street towns seem to have a much better attitude.

I've seen issues towards people of a far east background as well (Chinese and Hong Kong), that brushed off the racism with "that's just how people are here". I used to work in a Chinese supermarket as a student and customers often made comments about the produce, the language on the signs in the shop (Mandarin) or towards the owners and their ethnicity. Even though the owner was born and raised in Glasgow, they still pretended like they couldn't understand him etc and would ask for me, "the white lad".

Scotland is a lovely place, with lovely people, but it isn't without it's issues. Sadly a lot of people don't recognise racism and abuse at its smallest levels here either, thinking that the odd comment or starting a conversation with "where you actually from?" is okay patter.

You'll still enjoy your time overall here, and might not experience anything at all, but it's not all roses and sunshine as some comments here will make you believe.

If I posted "being Scottish in Asia" on the r/Asia subreddit, what would the reaction be?

Mrs is a Hong Konger and moved here a few years ago , she’s had a couple of comments mainly from older people to be honest

We passed two old women in Stockbridge they looked at my Mrs and said “there are just too many of them now!” Lol

The other time we were in Glasgow for a day trip and heard a couple of people talking about Chinese people buying all these expensive properties and how it was stopping “Scots” from purchasing them……. I bit at that one to be honest and laughed that I’m so sorry some Chinese person beat you to that million pound house I’m sure you were just about to pull the trigger on, must have been hiding there wealth as they had lonsdale tracksuits and carried primark bags.

Other than these two pretty tame incidents we haven’t encountered anything threatening and youngsters now seem to be enjoying K Pop , over priced bubble tea and Budalk noodles, so being Chinese SE Asian is actually seen as pretty cool at present.

In short no one really gives a sh@t to be honest there are no Chinese kids getting drunk , causing vandalism, most are here studying keep there heads down and obviously contribute massively to the economy here.

I’m mixed-race Southeast Asian but I look very Asian. I’ve been living here for 8 years now and I’d say the only times when I personally felt there was a bit of tension was during COVID, which was sadly common even in other countries at the time. The worst I got then was people giving me dirty looks and going out of their way not to sit next to me. This happened in Edinburgh.

That said, there have been posts on the Edinburgh sub from Asians talking about some of the negative experiences they’ve had, some examples here  and here .

Overall I still think Scotland is a relatively good and safe place to live for minorities, and I’ve experienced more blatant racism on short holidays in the continent than I have here, but I do think these things are worth being aware of so you’d know to be vigilant.

My wife is Asian (Thai) and we have been living in Edinburgh for 10 years. She has never had an issue or comment about her race. I really don't think you have anything to worry about. You'll love living over here .

I'm almost 40 and the only racists/ people who care about race I've met are all wee anti-racist activists. No-one else actually cares.

I live just outside Glasgow you Will be welcome we like Asian people so don't worry you Will be fine you Will love bonnie Scotland ♥️

I'd say that the majority of Scots would think Asian = South Asian, primarily Pakistani, Indian or Bangladeshi. Not in a bad way, just because that's what we're used to.

You say you look East Asian and we've got a thriving Chinese community, so your looks won't be especially unusual. Unless you're unlucky enough to meet the kind of idiot every country has it won't cause adverse comment.

Probably not. You've got nothing to worry about if you're gonna be in Edinburgh of all places.

Not a huge Central Asian community in Scotland but you should find some people. There’s a decent sized Iranian community in Glasgow and a fair number of Afghans and a few Kazakhs.

I personally haven’t met folk from other Central Asian countries.

I once stayed with a very nice Korean family in Turkmenistan so if you are from a Korean Central Asian background there is a decent sized Korean community in both Glasgow and Edinburgh that may be worth checking out.

I live in Edinburgh and I've never observed any racism against any east asians here (and I have many east asian friends). I have seen some casual racism on this subreddit though (one commenter implying that east asians don't have a sense of humour or something like that)

overwhelming majority of people here wont give a monkeys about your ethnicity, which is great

just a wee mention though, that we are genarally sound as fuck, especially in Glasgow - but we do have our fair share of maniacs just like everywhere else.

Yellow fever you’ll probably find everywhere in the United Kingdom if you look East Asian. I recommend you get whatever the Yellow Fever version of the Gaydar is, sometimes it’s hard to see.

My fiancée is South Asian and to the best of my knowledge she hasn’t had any issues in Edinburgh, I myself am White though so I may have missed more subtle things…
(I only say that though as I’m trying to get better at being aware that I as someone who is White but also Deaf may not see/hear everything)

Where I can add my personal experience is that I am disabled (deaf) and I haven’t had any issues.

In the experiences of both my fiancée and I, Edinburgh (Scotland a whole really) has been by far the best place we’ve lived.
(Context, she’s from North London, I’m from the middle of nowhere in Dorset - subsequently we both lived in North Wales, then Oxfordshire)

Just a bit of anecdotal storytelling.....but, i worked with a chap from Cameroon for a few weeks.....He had been living in several places down south and then moved here south of Edinburgh....So i just straight up asked him...how are you finding Scotland compared to England given that your from Cameroon....do you experience any racism?. and he said people had been a lot more polite to him up here and he felt more a lot more accepted...so everyone should be proud of that.

My partner is Chinese Singaporean has unfortunately had a fair few issues. Similar to other peoples comments, it was pretty bad during covid and you would hear a few comments about diseases etc. My assumption is people just assume she couldn't speak English because they were fairly open about making them.

I'd say the most upsetting for her though was when she was walking down Lauriston Street in Edinburgh with our daughter in the pram. Some random guy comes up to her and screams 'OPEN YOUR EYES CHINK' and that left her feeling her feeling pretty devasted.

Honestly, for the most part I think people here are pretty good in that they don't have overt racist intentions, but it can definitely be a problem getting people to accept that there is a problem.

Like most places, the majority won't care, but there are idiots everywhere, and it only takes one person out of the hundred you encounter in a day to ruin it!

Most of the population will know you are Asian, you're giving the general population too much credit if you think they'd try to differentiate between Central and Eastern Asian though.

Nobody cares.

We don't care about your race. We also don't care about the nuances between south/east/north Asian. and we really, really don't care for people who make their race their personality.

0 points (49% upvoted)

r/Scotland being its usual warm, welcoming self.