In college, do you guys...

[Ionless]

mix with other people from different nationalities/races?

Well maybe this question applies in normal life too.

I was wondering because I want to go to college abroad such that I would be able to mix with people from different backgrounds and make friends with people who aren't really similar to me (well on face value anyway)

But from what I see in my country, many people who go abroad eventually mix with people from my country there. My friends who have emigrated to other countries such as Canada also tend to stick around people from their race/nationality.

Of course there are many counter-examples, but these cases I see always fill my mind with a lot of doubt

So I was wondering what you guys thought.

[Aiken]

I can tell you from experience. You have to put in a lot of effort to get to know them and simply because you do not live the same kind of lifestyle as they do. You are more likely to cling to your own groups of friends from the same nationality because you have more things in common.

It is however, not impossible to mix with other people from other race/nationality. Just require you to put in more effort rather than hoping they come to you. Isn't this true for most friendship as well?

[adam88]

Originally Posted by Ionless

My friends who have emigrated to other countries such as Canada also tend to stick around people from their race/nationality.

In Canada, we have large populations of recent immigrants who speak their language, know their culture etc. so it makes sense that they'd stick together. That's how we develop neighbourhoods like Chinatown, Little Italy etc.

Being a white guy growing up in a immigrant-centric area of Toronto, 80% of my classmates all through elementary and high school were something other than "Caker" (Italian immigrant-slang for a white Canadian of Anglo-saxon descent). I went to school with Nigerians, Vietnamese, Ghanans, Jamaicans, South/Central Americans (ranging from Chileans to Ecuadorians), Italians, Portugese, Greeks, Macedonians etc.

I couldn't imagine growing up in a place where I was of the dominant race. How do you not mix with people of different races?

EDIT: How could I forget Russians?

[Alex19]

everybody hangs out with everybody in my college. my group of friends i chill with consist of 2 races- white and asian people. in actuallity, being around asians so much has really strengthened my attraction to them lol

[partietraumatic]

well i would have no problem hanging out with people of other nationalities, however in my experience its that they don't wanna hang out with us! At my uni groups of people from other nationalities stick together and often don't socialise with the rest of us. Hence there is only one guy from another country who i socialise with.

[The BC]

If you meet somebody at college chances are you have a lot more in common than you think - especially if they are in the same major.

I have friends who were adopted so they are Korean, Chineese, Philipino(sp?), but grew up in the states. They look different at face value I guess? That seems like a strange reason to hang out with people if you ask me. I say go with the flow and meet whoever.

You can study abroad for semester lengths at my school. I have friends who have gone to 2-3 countries but have been going to school here for 4 years. Where were you thinking of going?

[Connor22]

If you believe the BNP yes they are everywhere, honestly though I don't care if your from Lithuania or Germany etc etc I'll hang out with you anyway

[Love etc]

Yea, sure. Many of my friends are predominantely caucasian but that doesn't mean I'm against meeting and associating with people of different races or cultures. Asians, hispanics, blacks, it's all good.

[Phoenix]

I mixed with people of all different ethnicities even before I got to college. The city I'm from has a bunch of different ethnicities, even though the town I live in now is 99% white. In spite of all my flaws, one of my strengths is toleration. I never saw the point in not being someone's friend just because of something they couldn't change like skin color, ethnicity, sexuality etc.

[xCrazyInsanity]

In high school, generally no. there isn't a huge amount of diversity around here. I make no attempt to push people away because they're a different race, but I won't seek out friends just 'cause they're black
And frankly a lot of the diversity is inner city people who'd like nothing to do with the school freak.

[Austin]

Well form my experience. Lots of races stick with people of the same race for some reason. Of course lots mix fine with everyone as well.

I think it's the personal choice of the particular person. If you don't want to be seperated to your race only, you can make friends with anyone you want. (:

[Eccentric]

You gotta love the diversity around here right?
I can't imagine being surrounded with people of only a single race/ethnicity.
Even since elementary school to now in high school, my friends are...well, let me think... chinese, vietnamese, filipino, mexican, guatemalan, german, polish, italian, nigerian, indian, bengali... (ha this is fun but i'm gonna stop there)

And sure, you'll see some asian groups, some black groups, some hispanic groups, but not isolated from everyone else, not like strict cliques or anything

And remember, I'm just speaking for my school

[jazzrawr]

Well, I live in a smallish town, so almost everyone is white. -_- We have a few Asian kids, and 2 black kids. And that's literally it. It's awful - there's no diversity at all.
I can't wait to get to University and actually meet people from different cultures.

[Victor]

I would say that my college is fairly diverse. I do see a lot of people sticking with people their ethnicity, but that doesn't mean it is what everyone does. And for the most part, it isn't because that they are the same ethnicity. They usually have something else that ties them together.

Personally, I hang out with friends of all sorts of races. It's very easy to end up being friends with people you see the most, whether it be those who live in the same dorm building, apartment complex, etc., or those with the same major whom you share many classes with.

[MusicIsLife]

I found in college people tend to stick to their own races and things. In "normal life" like at work and such everybody is friends with everybody, regardless of race, religion, etc.

[4 seat]

The University I went to had the highest percentage of Asians in America (63%). It was interesting, cuz I was an athlete and most of the athletes at our school are either white or black with a couple other races here and there. I'm white and hung out with mostly athletes and their friends. Some of pretty much every race. I did notice that there are a couple frats that were entirely Asian and in general, Asians tend to stick together at my school. But other than that, everyone pretty much hangs out with whoever. Race really isn't a big deal in college.

[Nodnarb]

It seems like people at my University tend to segregate themselves. Most of the time you see groups of people that are all the same race walking together around campus or eating together. This isn't true for everyone, just to be clear. You also see a lot of groups with all sorts of different races together...maybe I just notice the single-race groups more. We have a ton of students who come here from China (the largest "group" on campus is white kids from Iowa, which is like over 80% of campus, and the second largest "group" is international students from China), and I would say that they tend to stick together more than average. I'm guessing it's because they are more comfortable around people who speak their native language and understand their culture.

I'd say 3/4 or more of my friends are white, but that's probably because even here on a relatively diverse college campus, it's still Iowa, and the vast majority of people are white. For example, on my floor we have about 30-40 guys. Two are black(they are identical twins and I cannot tell them apart despite living next door to them for 7 months, which makes for incredibly awkward moments when I am talking to one of them alone and don't know what his name is...), one is Hispanic, and one is Asian, and the rest of us are white. (somewhat unrelated sidenote; there are four gay guys on my floor, so the 1 out of 10 ratio holds true here) Back in high school everybody mixed together, but there were only a dozen or so people who were a racial minority out of about 650 kids.

[Bryan90]

Come to University of Toronto! If you make the effort, I'm sure you'd be able to mix with a people with different backgrounds and cultures. :P

[Kenko]

In my program, race or nationality wasn't really an issue as such. What can be more of an issue is language. If one (or both) parties are struggling to communicate it does pose a barrier (because friendships are normally easy flowing communication). As well cultural differences may mean you have less in common to talk about. So certainly it does require an actual effort, which is why I think people in foreign countries "fall back" on others from their country, at least in part, because it's easy, and as well it can help cope from cultural changes.

Though most of my university friends were also Canadian, our group did befriend a few international students. If anyone talked to us, we wouldn't turn them away. One guy in particular I think was giving an extra effort because I think he was trying to distance himself from other people from his country because they were notorious for cheating. He was invited to parties and stuff.

So yeah, there certainly were some "ethnic cliques", but people weren't actively blocked out, but effort had to be made.

[Gambit]

I'll tell you my own experience. I've been studying in college in the US for three years. During these years I've met people from all over the world. Most colleges and universities have an office or group for international students. These offices and groups organize events, trips and many social activities for international students where you can meet people from all over the world. International students also organize parties and socials. So you have a lot of options where to meet different kinds of people. I have also meet with people from my own country and we have become very good friends (there is only 5 of us in a university with 20,000 students). We usually meet to watch soccer games, eat, drink, talk about our country, etc. I consider that very helpful because it feels like been back home (After I left home, i realized how much i love my country and culture. Therefore, it's nice to hang out sometimes with people from your own country). The only decision is yours, you can choose to hang out only with people from other countries, with people from your own country or with people from the host country. But, most likely, you will end up hanging out with many different people.