Meeting other ABCDs in Australia

RELATIONSHIPS (Not Advice)

Heya guys, I’m new to this sub, so forgive me if this has already been asked 🙃 I wanted to ask a question that’s been sitting with me and my close girlfriends for a while around dating and finding a partner who shares a similar upbringing/cultural lens. While I’m not Australian-born, I migrated out of India to Perth when I was around 4 and essentially grew up there. I’ve always felt a bit “in-between” (like not quite fitting neatly into either the Indian or Australian boxes). Like yes, I was raised with Indian values, but in a very Western environment, which I know a lot of people here can probably relate to. Growing up, I was around other brown kids with similar backgrounds, but over time my family intentionally stepped back from larger desi community circles due to the toxicity and comparison culture that often came with them. We kept a small, close-knit group of family friends who now feel more like cousins/siblings than like prospective partners. Outside of that, most of my friends through school and uni were non-desi simply because that’s who I naturally vibed with. So now that I have also moved from Perth to Melbourne (which I naively thought would make things easier because of its much bigger South Asian diaspora) I’ve found dating to be honestly complicated. Apps like Hinge and Bumble are overwhelmingly populated by people who have grown up in India or migrated later in life. And again nothing against them at all, but after going on multiple dates and connecting with them in social settings, I have realised that our values, expectations, and lived experiences are often quite different, and it’s been hard to genuinely connect above the superficial level. So what I am trying to say/really looking for is someone who understands that “third culture kid/ABCD experience" and they're barely anyone on hinge or bumble these days. I have noticed people with similar upbringings are far more common in the US, UK, or Canada than in Australia, which has honestly made me wonder if location itself is part of the issue (and yes, I have even lowkey thought about changing my Hinge location 😅). So I guess my question is: Where are people like us actually meeting their partners? Was it apps (if so what apps), mutuals, work, chance encounters, long-distance, moving countries… or something else entirely? Would genuinely love to hear experiences, advice, or even just reassurance that this isn’t a uniquely-me problem 🥲

Posted Jan 30, 2026, 5:16 AM UTC

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