[munksbeer]

I'm an immigrant to the UK and I agree with you. This sort of thing gets said about a lot of countries, you will hear the same thing said from British people who move to Australia or NZ.

I've been in the UK 20 years now and I don't have a lot of British friends, even now. I moved when I was 27 years old. The friends I have are from common interests and work. I was lucky enough to meet one great friend at a workplace who loved rugby and skiing and socialising, like I do. We spent a lot of after work nights getting drunk in pubs, and we played rugby and went on skiing holidays. I then met a few of his friends, some of whom I've now become very good friends with, all these years we're still friends. But I can count these on one hand.

I don't resent it, though I do lament it. It's just that bonds tend to form early in your life and it becomes a lot more difficult later.

On the other hand, it was easy to make friends with people from my home country because you have something in common and you are all looking to make friends. And it's easy to network, because you just need one connection to get into a social circle.