Make friends in Australia: The importance of cross-cultural friendships

Making friends is one of the biggest challenges people can face in a new country. We naturally form support networks with people from similar cultural backgrounds but imagine taking a leap and expanding your friendship circle. Cross-cultural friendships will improve your outlook and heighten your sense of belonging.

International students report better experiences when they make local friends. Credit: iStockphoto / Dedy Andrianto/Getty Images

Key Points

• Through cross-cultural friendships, we find commonalities between different migration experiences.
• Cultural silos can prevent us from accessing critical information in a new country.
• Cross-cultural friendships give us new perspectives and strengthen our sense of belonging.
• Limiting ourselves to one cultural circle denies us the potential of creating our most meaningful relationships.

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