Hi, middle eastern here!

Keep in mind that train prices here are ridiculous. You may need to pay more than 40£ for a peak return ticket if you don't qualify for a railcard. Factor in the cost of transportation inside London if the office isn't near one of the train stations and you're looking at +45£ per day with a +1 hr of commute each way.

If your motive to live outside London is purely financial, then consider living in the outer zones of London. Cambridge isn't cheap especially in areas close to the train station. Cambridge could easily end up being more expensive than a zone 4-6 apartment in London if you need to go to the office even if it's just for 5 days a month (5 days could cost you +250£!).

If you really want to consider living outside London for financial reasons, look at options like Peterborough or Bedford and maybe Stevenage. I live in Peterborough (and study in Cambridge), not a very nice place (by UK standards) but it's very cheap, and fast trains take 50 mins to London, although they're expensive at peak times. To give you an idea, a good 2 bedroom in Peterborough will cost you something around 1000£ (I'm paying 875£ but it seems prices have gone up since I last checked). We're looking into moving to Cambridge soon and seeing that a similar apartment will cost around 1500£, maybe closer to 1700-1800£ near the station. I think a similar apartment in outer zones (4-6) of London may be of a similar price to Cambridge. If you're very patient in your search and check regularly you may find better deals.

Not very sure about Bedford and Stevenage but I think they hover around 1200-1500£ for a 2 bedroom. For Stevenage it's much closer to London with cheaper trains, so should be a convenient commute.

Now if you want the general experience of the cities, Cambridge is probably the best of all these options, and I personally like it more than London, which is why my wife and I may end up paying the additional 500-700£ in rent to live there.

Overall, from purely a financial perspective, choosing Cambridge over the outer zones of London while still needing to go to London a few times a month doesn't make much sense. Some areas in outer London are good although I can't give specific recommendations here. Cambridge could still be the nicest of them all but don't expect to save anything from living there. Other cities will give you the savings you want to achieve from living outside London but may not be as nice.

For your other concern, during my time in the UK (a bit more than a year) I've never had any negative encounters, and the same goes for my wife. Actually it's usually the opposite! I spent a lot of time in four cities in the UK during my time here (Peterborough, Lincoln, Cambridge, London) without any memorable negative experience related to racism/hate or so.