Do you prefere to live in "expat community"?

I think that moving to a new country is difficult and having an expat community to lean on can be helpful, however I don't plan to move to Argentina to hang out with Americans every day. The great thing about moving to a country that you like is to experience a new culture, maybe learn a new language, and make new friends. Although it might be great to have a few friends from your native country, I think that it's a disservice to yourself not to try to integrate at least to some point.

I was brought over to live in this small Spanish coastal village as a child. Now, 40 years later, it's a town with about 50% British population. Probably more English spoke than Spanish (with Rumanian (!) running in third place).
For all the romantic reasons that exist for being an ex-pat, I fail miserably. However, I don't like England at all, have no family there and don't visit.
Here, I probably speak English most of the day, yet, I also speak Spanish at work. My children were born and live here, being completely bilingual. One of them lives in Madrid and I sometimes spend time there (Madrid is a great city).
I spend a part of the year in Pamplona as well.
To be an ex-pat, you can live in what the Spanish call a 'foreign ghetto' and be comfortable enough. Perhaps like living in 'The Raj'. You can get a job without speaking much of the language as most of your customers will  be fellow foreigners! You will find it easy to make friends (among your own nationals) and will be very comfortable as Spain is a friendly country, as the state more or less leaves you alone, and because it is warm and you can misbehave (drink too much, take dope, fool around etc) to your heart's content. There is no Auntie Jane to keep you behaving properly.
The other type of ex-pat is the one who immerses himself in the real Spain. Disappears off to Granada or Segovia or the Picos de Europa... He or she will learn a lot. You may never hear from them again...

I WISH I had the choice. The ex-pat community here is me, one foreign exchange student, and um... um... that's all I know of.

I don't think it's a good idea to live in an ex-pat ghetto, I mean, what's the point in living "abroad" (whatever that means) if you just surround yourself with the nationals you left behind? But I would love, from time to time, to have people around who have a common background to myself.

When I am in a foreign country, I like to live and work with people from the country. That's very important for me, even if it's not so easy sometimes. (I mean it is much easier to live with other expatriates)

I think the first and hardest point is to speak the local language ... it takes time but it is really worth! I really enjoy foreign cultures

lenox wrote:

I was brought over to live in this small Spanish coastal village as a child. Now, 40 years later, it's a town with about 50% British population. Probably more English spoke than Spanish (with Rumanian (!) running in third place).
For all the romantic reasons that exist for being an ex-pat, I fail miserably. However, I don't like England at all, have no family there and don't visit.
Here, I probably speak English most of the day, yet, I also speak Spanish at work. My children were born and live here, being completely bilingual. One of them lives in Madrid and I sometimes spend time there (Madrid is a great city).
I spend a part of the year in Pamplona as well.
To be an ex-pat, you can live in what the Spanish call a 'foreign ghetto' and be comfortable enough. Perhaps like living in 'The Raj'. You can get a job without speaking much of the language as most of your customers will  be fellow foreigners! You will find it easy to make friends (among your own nationals) and will be very comfortable as Spain is a friendly country, as the state more or less leaves you alone, and because it is warm and you can misbehave (drink too much, take dope, fool around etc) to your heart's content. There is no Auntie Jane to keep you behaving properly.
The other type of ex-pat is the one who immerses himself in the real Spain. Disappears off to Granada or Segovia or the Picos de Europa... He or she will learn a lot. You may never hear from them again...

Lenox, 

Great to hear your experiences from Spain! It seems like you integrated pretty well into society there, although you may live in the English speaking community, you still learned Spanish and speak it at work, and your kids are integrated and bilingual.

I guess my biggest problem is with an expat "ghetto" composed of people who have been relocated for their company and prefer to stay in their own little world away from home, surrounded by all the comforts and often comparing, negatively, that country to how it was back at "home." I know there are many many people like that and those are the ones that I talk about not wanting to be around.

Hope to hear from you again!

I don't spend time with expats from the same country at all. After all, the people in Germany were one of the main reasons why I wanted to leave even when I was still a child. I have friends from many different countries but I don't have any German friends. I want to speak English since I live in the UK and love this country.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of Germans on my course at uni (I'm studying Interpreting) who keep complaining about everything and anything in the UK. I still enjoy studying here and I am not forced to spend any time with them outside of uni. So I don't. I've blended in with the locals from the very beginning. I have wanted to live here for so long and now I'm finally here.

I'm not sure if other people feel the same way but I get really offended when people try and speak German to me. One guy just kept trying and I did anything from ignoring him at first. Ihen I responded in English because I felt it was very impolite to speak German when nobody else spoke that language. It's just so rude and it really annoys me.