Expats are a dubious community. They’re friendly with each other for the most part, but on first meeting, only begrudgingly so. Another expat is often suspicious. It’s as if the expat gets the silly notion in his mind that there’s only enough room for a designated number of foreign transplants like himself, and that you may be the one that tips the boat over. He may be worried that by bad behavior you could be giving expats a bad reputation, or he might be one of those impossibly romantic types that somehow thinks that he is the only Westerner that belongs in China or wherever, that the exotic land was made for only him to peek into. Although close friendships are made between expats are made between expats just as they are among ‘regular’ people, the expat is typically a bit standoffish and thick-skinned. That’s how they got to be expats in the first place after all.
Personally, I have never, ever seen a brawl or even a shouting match between expats, though I’m sure it happens. But there seems to be an unwritten code between us that although we’re not obligated to love each other and send each other Christmas cards, we at least have to recognize and respect that the expat is after all, brave enough to be here just like us. We respect each other’s gumption in other words.
You might think it to be totally taboo for the expat to get into a fight with a native but it’s not, particularly among the younger crowd. It should be though, considering that it’s not only ostracizing from a diplomatic viewpoint, it could also easily get you kicked out of the country. But people need to let out steam I suppose.
