I realise this is the kind of question that will elicit completely different answers depending on each person personal situation, but anyway, I am curious to hear about other people’s stories.
I have been living in the UK for nearly eight years and I can’t say I have one really close friend who is British, and this is despite being very well integrated here (my partner is English).
I’ve heard endless experiences from other expats that are similar to mine, where most if not all their closest friends are other expats. This could be just a London thing, simply because of the amount of foreigners here. Also I am in my mid fourties, so establishing meaningful relationships is simply harder (no offense, but I am not that interested about hearing how you, a 20 something, has plenty of British friends).
I am not asking how to make friends, thank you, I can figure out that joining a club or volunteering or whatever is a great way. I am mostly curious to hear from others if this is a common experience.
I’ve been very fortunate to have been adopted by a group of locals AND have found a handful of other one-off friends by aggressively joining hobby groups and trying to identify people who seem fun and interesting. Many are English, but some are not. I’ve found that people who have lived abroad previously are particularly welcoming, as are ND folks and people who are sort of quirky in general. I’ve only been here a couple of years, so I haven’t made the equivalent of my super-special-bestest-friends-from-childhood, but I’m really happy with my social circle right now.