The one thing that helped me the most when I just finished university and lived alone in a foreign country without any friends was to take a look at activities

The one thing that helped me the most when I just finished university and lived alone in a foreign country without any friends was to take a look at activities and clubs nearby and become a member. Since I was shy and found it hard to express myself, I decided to force myself to join an improvisation theater group. This really helped me a lot to meet people I wouldn't have otherwise met and to be in situation where it's much easier to communicate because you have some shared interest which isn't work. This may sound trite but I think that this really helped. My choice of doing theater was also great to improve language skills and confidence I think (my english wasn't that great either then). I recommend clubs where there are activities because if you just go to meetups, it's often very hard as the new guy to approach people. Social activities like improv theater or sports or board games or anything like this creates a basis of interaction with the people around you making it much easier to meet.