This all depends on where you are in your life as well as the setting. What I mean by this is that if you are in your teenage years then you might need to adopt a different strategy suiting the age group you interact with and the setting. At this age you are likely to be still in college or in your first job etc. Whereas when in your late 30s you are likely to be in a relationship, have kids and are more career and family focussed. I will try to share what I have experienced in my teens,20s and now 30s. I repeat I am also still learning so feel free to post your thoughts, contradicting views etc. on my blogg.

• Find a Hobbies

I brought my African culture with me to university. I was pretty much taught that school was all about studying and that sports and other activities were secondary. As a result, my university years were most filled with studying and going to my part time job. Which helped cover living expenses. As a result, I did not join any clubs or do any sports or do extra modules on language etc. I later realised that this was a big mistake. To start with, my fellow students who did a lot of extra co-curricular activities ended up meeting more people and making valuable friendships. They were able to get hired quickly on graduate programmes after finishing university because they had diverse and wide experience whilst at University. I realised most companies valued this more than just academic performance. My point is that if you can find a hobby that allows you to meet local people then pursue it. It could be a local football club, Art Club, Gardening Club. There are usually countless groups and clubs in your local area. There you can meet residence who are well connected and have lived in your area, sometimes since birth. They have valuable knowledge and are often willing to share tips and teach a few things about their culture and language. Compare this to just staying with people who are just like you with limited knowledge. Sometimes it is best to venture out to meet the unfamiliar.

• Learn the Language

I think undoubtably a key factor in settling into the UK. You need to learn to speak English first of all as most British people only speak English. Depending on where you are, you will find that the average person here is impatient in trying to communicate with someone who can’t speak English. I know it is not fair but that is how it is. Local colleges here are very cheap. They also do English classes at flexible times. There is really no excuse. Alongside this you can also try again as mentioned above find a hobby that will allow you to interact with people who speak English. Some suggest finding a boyfriend/girlfriend that speaks the language you want to learn if you want to take it that far 😊. Tip; I worked as a delivery driver. There, I met loads of immigrants doing the same job with very little or no English. I would often suggest they bought Audio tapes for learning English. That way they could listen to English lessons whilst delivering pizza. Very few took my advice. In the end, they were stuck in that job as they could not find other jobs. It was very sad as most of them were Engineers, Electricians, Teachers back in their countries. But you could see a drop in confidence the longer they stayed in these low paying jobs. They would give excuses about not having enough time, they were too old, there were no jobs out there …but the truth is the world out there was more intimidating because they could not understand the language.

• What if I am Religious? 

I can only speak from my only experience as a Christian on this topic. If you are religious then I would stick with it when moving to a new country like the UK. It can be very challenging the first few months, missing family and friends.  Churches can provide a good place to meet people and get some emotional support. However, there can also be a not so good side to going to church. What I noticed with Zimundaans for example, they would go to Zimundaan churches in the UK. I am sure this applies to other nationals. Unfortunately, what this meant was that they simply created a little Zimunda away from Zimunda which can be good and bad. The bad side of it was that they did not end up integrating with their local community or attempt to find out more about the local culture. I noticed that some of the people were very ignorant of basic things about the UK society for example good schools for their kids, dealing with the local authorities for various needs, effectively advising or guiding their kids on careers etc. There was only one reason for this, they created a small ecosystem that did not bring in any ideas from outside their already existing knowledge. In the end they all bought the same cars, bought houses in the same neighbourhoods, applied for jobs in the same companies. Later on when they started going on holidays abroad they would all start travelling to the same destinations. I thought this was very sad as they did not effectively realise that they were now part of a wider community and that there was a lot of valuable information and experience out there. So, I guess my advice is that church or religion is good but try to have a balance between socialising with your own nationals from church and also from outside church. This will expose you to more opportunities and a wealth of experience. 

• Leverage technology  to Meet people

Living in London, I found out that it was possible to be lonely in such a big city. I was lucky that I had some old school mates living in London. I also quickly made friends at work and had people to hangout with after work and weekends outside my old existing network. We will discuss this further later.  A friend of mine introduced me to meetup groups years ago. So these are different social groups online that put people of similar interests together whilst live in the same area. I attended a few and it was great to meet people with similar interests. On one occasion we went to watch a band and then had dinner afterwards. What struck me was the blend of people. There was a balance between British people and immigrants like me. People were very open to conversation and to offer help. Most people came on their own which made them a bit more open. This is a great way to meet new people and to get you out. My point is that with technology there are many ways to find people around you. So be on the look out for various websites/apps that can help you to meet people.

• Health and Fitness

The weather here can be gloomy most parts of the year. Get used to it. Get yourself out for some fresh air at least once a day. It can be very depressing especially when you come from warmer parts of the world. Getting your body moving makes you feel better, releases hormones that put you in a better mood. I decided a few years ago that I was not going to be paying attention to the weather anymore. It was not going to change or affect my mood.  I started cycling, swimming at a lake and running. I found that this put me in a much better mood. I also made some good friends. My cousin joined a local running club and he was able to meet a few local people I your area.