Why Do People Move Abroad To Be Surrounded By ExPats?

i suppose people want to feel a sense of belonging and that the first few years moving to a foreign country its nice to have ties back to your home country but also useful to have people around you who speak your language and who you can build friendships with because its a huge move , moving from one country to another and giving up everything you know and changing your whole lifestyle and having the suppport of others who are in a similar boat to you can make that move a hell of a lot easier..


having said all this .. i dont surround myself with expats i live in a maltese community and i am happy to do so , i dont know any british people other than via this forum or friends who come to visit .... i guess i am not one for making friends lol

Thanks robpw2, awesome answer.

We are the only English couple in our village.  Have lots of new friends , Maltese and the English that visit  and of course the wonderful virtual friends on here.

Another expat lives next door, but I had no idea until after we moved in.
I see other expats, but usually in passing.

No problem with expats, but I have no care about the race of my mates.

People don't move abroad to be surrounded by expats.
People move abroad for other reasons and some have an  expat community on their wish list and some do not.
Malta is a very small island , for say British  expats  it will be difficult to settle in an are that has no other British  expats.

Any expat community will provide some support, knowledge, guidance for people who have just arrived and estate agents, word of mouth etc will tend to target those people of the same country thinking of moving to that area.
Hence you then you get  a self evolving expat community forming.

Over time those that like the expat feel will stay and those that do  not will move away.

Simples!!

Terry

Particularly I prefer to live and meet people that don't have the same nationalities. I don't know why but I think this is because I love the differences. I lived in Southeast Asia twice and I learned a lot about the differences of races, cultures, points of view, religions, etc in that place.

Could be, this make me a better person?

Thank you for your input .

Thank you for your comments.

I have Chinese neighbours on one side and opposite me.
The other houses in the soi are all Lao. 

In my 40 + years of living and working around the world I have often been the only English speaking person on the job apart from a translator.
I have never had a preference to be around others of the same nationality as me when I have been working as I make an attempt to speak the local language of whatever country I am in.

But on a social level it is nice to be with people who speak the same language as yourself.

We also have lots of Maltese friends...but occasionally it is nice to meet (like minded) folk from your home country. My husband is trying desperately to learn Maltese...but very hard. He does feel a little left out sometimes as it is a normal thing for the Maltese to lapse into Maltese mid conversation. Even jokes etc do not translate that well. So any Brits out there want to meet up for a coffee, please let us know.

pmichelazzo wrote:

Particularly I prefer to live and meet people that don't have the same nationalities. I don't know why but I think this is because I love the differences. I lived in Southeast Asia twice and I learned a lot about the differences of races, cultures, points of view, religions, etc in that place.

Could be, this make me a better person?

Could tell without all the flags at the bottom in your path that the comment was either from a Brazilian or Canadian....... two countries that embrace multiculturalism to the fullest and that's why I love them both.

I'm actually only now after 13 years in Brazil starting to meet more expats, I have really been so busy making Brazilian friends I didn't need to "isolate" myself.

I agree, people who move abroad and restrict themselves to keeping within the expat (usually their own nationality) community just miss out on too much. Some of the reasons for which they do this aren't well though out in the first place, others are just downright wrongheaded.

Cheers,
James                      Expat-blog Experts Team

Mike and I both love meeting folk from different cultures and nationalities. Absolutely agree with integration...but there is a comfort from knowing people from back home too. I am Maltese and lived in UK for the whole of my working life (38years). My husband, children, extended family, friends, workmates, neighbours were mostly all British. I still loved it if I ever heard "my Maltese" spoken.

I've been here over 10 years. The expat community wasn't so large then and at first my friends were Maltese.
I then found myself bumping into the odd expat and found some comfort in speaking to someone with the same culture etc.
However, as time went by, I realised that speaking the same language, understanding the same culture, jokes, history didn't necessarily mean that they were the same sort of people I would have mixed with back home. You find yourself bonding with people because of the above reasons and not for them and the consequences have led me down paths of trusting people. The result; being let down, used and stabbed in the back.
I am more careful now. The expats are there if I require 'back home' conversations. I go out and have a few drinks with them but I don't get involved in their lives anymore. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt!

We know and have associated with just 4 British expats and their family. All our other friends and associates are 'local'.

horses for courses... i think

I'm the opposite. When we made our second trip overseas we moved to a mainly English area on one of the Canary Islands. What a mistake that was, it was like living in the middle of  a soap opera more drama, problems, break up's, punch up's, arguments etc etc  We then moved to a non British area and it was wonderful. I'm not saying every where is like this because it isn't but from our own experience we wont be doing it again.