I had a similar immigrant experience - from Russia to Europe, and i resonate so much with what you say about human connection - it is so much different in the West. When me and my husband, who is Spanish, went to Russia and he met my friends, on the way back he told me that he was so struck by the depth of connection we had. He even got a bit sad because he realized he never had friends like this throughout his entire life. I wonder what is it about Russia that makes it so? Probably the shared experience of being fucked up on a massive scale, i cannot come up with other explanation.