“We human beings are social beings. We come into the world as the result of others’ actions. We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others’ activities. For this reason, it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others.” Dalai Lama XIV
Just after I moved to Denmark in 2013, I became curious about how expats make new friends. This led to a study where I – with the help of a few student helpers – interviewed 72 expats around the world, to ask them about how they made new friends. This has led to a process model that shows how this works, and this is explained in Chapter 2 of my book Breaking out of the Expat Bubble, which is available in Open Access via de page of the publisher!