Re: Making Friends
 

I can't say I know anything about Crewe. Where in UK is it? have you lived long in OZ?

I have to admit that I haven't lived in Melbourne but have lived in Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney and Perth. I found Brisbane and Adelaide a bit more friendly than Sydney, and Perth is the worst in my experience.

My neigbour was saying to me the other day that he was chatting with someone from a local migrant info/advice centre who also is of the opinon that many migrants find great difficulty in developing friendships with Australians. Social dislocation is a huge problem in this country.

Re: Making Friends
 

Crewe's a grim little railway town in the North West, inbetween Manchester & Birmingham. A lot of the people I knew were born and bred there and have no desire to ever leave it. Much like I've found in many other towns in the UK. It can make going in as an 'outsider' even if you're English yourself quite daunting.

I can see that it probably is harder for a migrant to make Aussie friends, I've only been here a couple of months and the people I've met have been mainly expats from this board, but I think that will change when my kids go back to school next week, I met a few of the other mums before Xmas but my son was only in school 3 weeks so not long enough to get to know anyone - though at least I was invited out for a coffee during that time! I'm not really fussy about where my friends come from though, just as long as I have some! And I guess as I have something in common with other migrants from the UK I will probaby 'bond' more quickly with them.

Again my point is making Aussie friends when you're an immigrant is nothing to do with Australians not being friendly or social dislocation etc, it's just the same with migrants to the UK or anywhere from what I can see! For me personally I've found it easier to make friends in cities (even London) where you're more likely to meet people who've moved around a bit and who tend to have broader horizons than people who've lived in the same spot since they were born.

Re: Making Friends
 

I agree with you, as someone who has lived in many countries it is the same the world over. I have found the Australians no different to the Canadians, Americans, Dutch, Norwegians or Brits I have come across. Some you will like, some you won't. Some will like you, some won't. In my view there is nothing more too it.

Re: Making Friends
 

LOL. My mum is from Perth (well, Fremantle). She's lived in the UK the last 40+ years but is one of the friendliest people I've met, she's very interested in people from any country.

Re: Making Friends
 

People can moan about the Australians or anyone else for that matter, but this is how the English are viewed by other countries. So it is a bit like calling the kettle black.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ma.../etbrits10.xml

http://www.shef.ac.uk/ssid/internati...g/culture.html

Re: Making Friends
 

I actually keep quiet when I am out shopping these days, particularly since i moved further into the northern suburbs. It find I am embarassed a lot of the time of my nationality. The Australians are by no means perfect but our arrogance that we are always amazes me.

Re: Making Friends
 

No doubt living in the UK has been beneficial to her then in that the social cohesion is stronger thereby acting as a positive for her personality to flourish rather than become hidden. It's not where you are born, it's the social conditioning and cohesion that makes the difference.

Re: Making Friends
 

Well I have found Brits (whether in UK, NZ or OZ) to be far more friendly than Australians!

Aussies like to bleat on about how bloody marvellous they and their country is, (and how no other place on earth comes anywhere near as good),till the point you need a bucket to chunder in! In Perth this idea is rigidly applied to all things Western Australian.

laidback friendly people, sunshine , beaches, the lucky country, all part of some great myth Aussies worship and hold on to for dear life lest anything be thrown up to question or threaten their blissful ignorance.

Re: Making Friends
 

It's not arrogant to have pride in your country or a positive opinion of it and it's people. It is arrogant though, when people constantly bang on about how it's simply the best country in the and the best people in the world? How do people even begin to propose the criteria for such a ludicrous assessment? Let alone measure it and then claim their results as gospel?

Re: Making Friends
 

But the number one destination for foreign visitors to England is London, so it is hardly surprising that they get that impression. I bet the experience that visitors get to the other main tourist destinations (Lakes, Bath etc) would be somewhat different. And even more so if they went to the more off-the-beaten-track places in England.

As for friends, I have found that there a people who I would say I am friendly with, work colleagues and mothers group members, but I have not met anyone so far (2.5 years) that I could call a close friend. I have moved around a lot in England, but seem to have made at least one "close" friend wherever I have been, but not here in Sydney.

Re: Making Friends
 

Are you going back to Brum?

Re: Making Friends
 

PMSL, I can see we're going to disagree about this whatever. Umm you don't know my mum, judging by the friends she keep in touch with she was a pretty friendly person before she left Australia. In fact, and this proves my point, if you ask her who her closest friends are she'd probably give an Australian name, I think small towns in the UK (she lives in Scarborough) can be pretty unaccepting of immigrants. Another e.g is my SIL, she's a Thai living in Leeds - I can't think of one English friend she has other than my brother's mates. Her friends are mainly fellow Thais living in Leeds.

Have you lived in the UK yourself?

Re: Making Friends
 

There is a point here that is being missed. Your mum is a born and bred perthite. My comment about difficulty making friends here was about migrants to OZ, not expat Ozzies who grw up and had friends here as kids and teens etc.

Migrants from other cultures do tend to mix much more with their own fellow expats than locals. A part of this may be due to factors like not feeling accepted, and on that score the UK has a pretty poor history in repect of race relations. OZ's history isn't that flash either.

Re: Making Friends
 

I spent a year in the UK, based in London for most of it.

Re: Making Friends
 

Sigh, and you're missing my point that migrants going to ANY country often have difficulty making friends with people who were born and bred there. Australia is no different from anywhere else in that respect.

My mum's ability to make friends has nothing to do with the UK's social structure making it easier for her personality to shine or whatever your theory was.

If you're going to the UK again I would stick to London, it's easier to make friends there for reasons I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread.