is there such thing as an expat community here...and I don't mean in the sense of expats living here, but more in the sense of a true community...or is everybody just doing their own thing...

Define community...

lol...I was hoping others would do that for me...
just triggered by someone asking 'what's the expat community like'...which makes it sound like there is a group sticking together that you have to get into to meet 'likeminded' people...
In my opinion there really isn't such a thing, everybody just does their own thing and you meet people randomly, that you either get friendly with or not...if that makes any sense...

Dubai's too big for a proper expat community. Not like in say, Jakarta, where all the British expats know each other and all the kids go to the same 1-2 expat schools.

I think it's more smaller groups of people rather than one big community,

saying that when I watched the footy the other week there was over 20 of us geordies together.

so not much different from what you'd find back home...
when people ask about 'the expat community' it just feels like they are expecting some ready made thing that you are going to belong to...

20...that's a small group non...

nope, the place is full of self serving twats...

BC tries to hang on to the hope that there will one day be a renaissance and everyone will care about each other..

paf..

people come, people go..Dubai is a transient state...

nope not at all, it took me months to get a couple of proper mates.

Well only 2 of us from my country in the UAE so guess that doesnt count as a community, what ever it is defined to be??!!!!

eh? what country is that then?

I think it also depends what you do - there's more of a community feel amongst expat stay-at-home mums, but I have to say that it's possibly through a desperate need to hang on to some kind of sanity!

It is also really transient. My local M&B group (read "community") has been rather rocked by people moving on/away. More arrive, but still, the turnover isn't very good for morale.

Yeah... not sure. There was definitely more of an expat community feel in France when I was living there.

Maybe it's something to do with the fact that expats are the majority in the UAE, and also the shops, restaurants and language are all British/American, so where exactly is the need to hang on to your sense of nationality? Expats only really club together to remind themselves of "home" after all.

Agree with that...unless one actually goes out of ones way to meet up with BE Forum people for drinks, meet-ups or quiz nights ! Otherwise, 'tis like back home or anywhere...you just tend to meet up with people randomly; say, at a pub, or sport/activity where you share something on common.

Lemme guess- Zimbabwe? And no, it's not because fo the name thing....

He may be a Rhodesian.....

Virtual count???