[brnt]

Moving abroad and making some sort of life for yourself is two things: 1. a review of your preconceptions and a test for your ability to adapt, 2. if you stick it out, you may integrate new ways and viewpoints into who you are and what you think.

When you then go back to people who are similar (because that's always going to be the case to some extent, even if locally the community feels and/or thinks itself diverse) you will frequently feel that others have not 'progressed' or are 'stuck' in those culturally determined ways. It's hard to share that growth with people that haven't done the same, which is I think why expats stick together, even when they're back.

I moved between Western countries I should perhaps add.