I am really glad I started this thread, what a wealth of opinion.
Re: Accents changing - my mum who was scots, lived in England for 35 years and her accent became anglisised. She had a stroke and regained her broad scottish accent - it was weird

I have already taken my Brazilian friend in (in fact he's known to go there quite a lot)and he gets on so well with them - -its scary(and he knows there views)

I shall keep bashing away at them and if there are any interesting updates I will let you know
Patrish xx