How to decide between meeting expats versus assimilation? [closed]

Question

I looked at Meeting other expats when you move to a new country? and thought the goal of an expat may be just the opposite: instead of binding yourself with the citizens of your own country/culture/language, an expat should build tight relationship with locals of the country you are living in.

My question is how to decide where to invest my efforts. Obviously, the options are:

1. Finding expats from your own country;
2. Building relationship with local citizens;

The most apparent reasons for finding expats is that they can provide with some help to a newbie. They may assist finding accommodation, job, etc. Finally, they are holding your own culture, they read same books you have probably read, they understand your jokes, and so on.
The most evident drawbacks is that quite often, "long stayers" may cheat on "newbies", like in this case of real estate cheating.

On the contrary, locals are actually forming the vast majority of the society you are living in. Unless your immigration was somehow forced, it was your voluntary decision to move there, and socializing with local citizens may provide with greater benefits.

In most cases, every expat will develop in both directions, but finding the key factors to decide where to invest your time looks an important question to me.

Answer 1

One piece of advice is to characterise individuals along more axes than just their nationality. Whether you are talking about expats or locals, it is as important to understand their backgrounds, social status and interests, as it is to understand the colour of their passports or skin.

Let's say that you are a French doctor, emigrating to Vietnam. At first blush, all Vietnamese will "look the same"TM. After a while you will appreciate that socialising with a Vietnamese doctor is a very different experience from socialising with a Vietnamese bus driver. The same applies to expats you may socialise with. Hanging out with a bunch of ex-military guys who are there for the sex is very different from hanging out with a bunch of environmentalists.

Especially in the early days, you will be offered more advice than you ever asked for, and that advice can colour your view of the country. So it's important to characterise where the advice is coming from.