Difference between a long term ex-pat and an immigrant

[journeyofinsanity]

Just that really. Why do Brits abroad for 20 years call themselves expats rather than migrants/immigrants?

Yes do agree with this, though on the other hand the Malaga villa residents are unlikely to become Spanish citizens even if planning to stay permanently as that would necessitate surrendering all other citizenships.

If you go to someone else's country you're an ex-pat. If someone else comes to your country they're an immigrant

This is what I always thought. It depends on how you're using the words, you can see this in the semantics because 'ex' is Latin for 'from' and ' i m ' means 'into' (like the root of the word implant).

Am quite surprised by all the racist snobs in the thread who think being rich or white comes into it... sorry folks, that's not it.

It makes sense I suppose that the white British people have become associated with expat because they've left, rather than new arrivals to the country as most people in this country are white but it's crazy to then define it by skin colour. What about a poor brown British person who live abroad a few years in Spain? you wouldn't call them a British immigrant would you! theyd be an expat. Anything else is just snobbery.

It's like the difference between immigrate and emigrate. The meanings are the opposite because of the "e/ex" and "im" prefix.

Absolutely this. Ex-pat is a term that always sets the spidey senses tingling - if you move to live in a different country then you're an immigrant in your new country and an emigrant from your old one regardless of your economic or visa status.

I don't think ex-pat is an internationally recognised term, I think it's only British people who use it. Open to correction on that.

Why do Brits abroad for 20 years call themselves expats rather than migrants/immigrants?

I fear a lot has to do with what some pp have said, a feeling that the British are better than "immigrants". I wonder if it's also a generational thing? I don't know anyone my age who would consider or refer to themselves an ex-pat. My Brexit-supporting parents, in one of their many rants, were furious when I pointed out I was an immigrant. "Of course we're not talking about people like you, you're family and you're an ex-pat." I disagreed and said even if I were to move back to the UK, their grandchildren and SIL would be immigrants. It has not been mentioned since; neither has the fact that my DC's native language is not and never will be English.

I suppose technically, if a British person who lives abroad is talking to another British person, ex-pat is the word to use. Whereas if that British person is talking to a national of the country they live in, immigrant is the word to use. However, I think for the most of the British people I know living abroad, ex-pat has negative connotations and is not something we would use to describe ourselves.

Yep

Also I don't think I've ever heard of a 'long term expat' I think they are generally considered short term. If someone told me they were an expat I'd assume

• they're British
• living outside Britain
• not got citizenship of their new country

All those conditions could be false if they were an immigrant.

Why did so many British people living in the EU support Brexit in order to cut down on immigration? Because they literally did not see themselves as immigrants. Or realise that changes to immigration rules would affect them too.

I'm not saying everyone who calls themselves an expat is wrong, but there is definitely a racist/xenophobic aspect to it sometimes, that some people think middle-class white people are not immigrants, they are expats.

This is also why, as a white immigrant in the UK, I have often heard people ranting about immigrants, and then when I point out I'm an immigrant, they say, oh I don't mean you.

@JenniferBarkley People in other countries do say expat, but in my experience more correctly, to refer to people sent abroad by their employers for a couple years, who often have a different immigration/tax regime applied to them.

the difference between an expat and an immigrant is that an expat is either getting their living from the economy of their home nation, or makes their living from an international base not tied to any one country. So e.g. employees of a British company who need to live and work in Egypt or Brunei to advance the business of their British employer are expats. Also retirees who save up their pension in their home country and then go to retire abroad without relying on the governmental provision which locals of their age would have access to.

Immigrants on the other hand will generally not have an income stream from their original country - they may on the contrary be sending money home - and will generally have a job in their adopted new country home, and will access the local services as needed and as far as they are entitled to.

Most developed economies need plenty of immigrants to balance the workforce, as it's very unlikely that the career aspirations of the indigenous population will always 100% match to the demand from employers. Immigration balances this by enabling the employers demands to be answered by attracting appropriate people from other countries. However, on a global scale there will still be an imbalance and a wealthy nation propping up its care sector and other sectors with immigrant labour will be contributing to the problems in the home countries of those immigrants, by sucking away the talented and courageous people who might otherwise have made a desirable difference back home. but that's not to say we shouldn't allow immigration, but we should be aware of the damage it causes and should contribute unstintingly to international development projects that tackle the problems that make it so desirable to escape certain countries, because our prosperity is bought from the perpetuation of that suffering in some cases, so we owe it to them.

I lived on a Spanish island for a time, we were out for dinner with Spanish neighbours and they were complaining about the number of immigrants, there are large numbers of South Americans living there.
I pointed out that we were immigrants to which they looked surprised and said no but they looked horrified when I said their daughter who had moved to Australia was also an immigrant. It turned to a long and interesting conversation about who we class as immigrants.

It drives mad. It's British superiority. I am an immigrant in Spain not an ex pat

This is also why, as a white immigrant in the UK, I have often heard people ranting about immigrants, and then when I point out I'm an immigrant, they say, oh I don't mean you.
I've had this too, so I don't think it's solely a UK thing. I've even heard people referring to children as "half-bloods". When I looked horrified and asked if she meant kids like my DC she said no, she didn't mean children like mine but children like those two (her neighbour's DC) with parents from eastern Europe 😮

It's this. Nothing to do with colour or class or relative wealth.

I have been both and expat and an immigrant. The difference is the intention to stay and my legal status in the country.

Because they’re British, usually white and believe they’re superior to everyone else.

For Brits I would tend to consider ex-pats as someone living temporarily abroad, usually for work, who maintains very close ties with home country and intends to return eg living and working in Dubai
I would consider an immigrant as someone who has permanently emigrated to another country and does not see them self returning to live in their home country eg permanently emigrating to Australia

It's not just the British who call themselves expats. I'm overseas and call myself an economic migrant. I'll be moving back to the UK in the next year or so.

Not really. Your ignorance is showing. I know Americans, Irish, South Americans, East Europeans who are classed as expat where I work. Our annual leave is called repat leave.

I am a Brit who lives in NZ. I intend to stay here permanently, and I am a citizen of NZ - in my view this makes me an immigrant. I have dual nationality.

If I intended to return to the UK I would consider myself an expat. I usually think of an expat as someone on a temporary work placement who probably does not have dual nationality.

I think it comes down to the reason for moving. If you move for greater opportunities, you're an immigrant. If you move for greater spending power, you're an expat.

I disagree with this - my parents moved for the opportunity (job posting to an international office), even though our spending power was less as it was to a much more expensive city, and also one in which we could never have gained full citizenship thanks to being the wrong ethnicity. I settled in the UK permanently and I have greater spending power here than I would have had in the country of my birth (though there's not much in it). I think it's more about whether you intend to settle permanently or not.

Plenty of expats become immigrants. But it doesn't just 'happen': it's a shift in legal and sometimes tax status. You can be a legal or illegal immigrant.

Expats aren't just white Brits. The largest group of expats in my first expat situation were Chinese. They were being paid by their home country and planning to return: expats.

Colonialism. They are white and British so of course they think they have the right to move and live wherever they like.

Some posters are letting their prejudices/ignorance show. It's not the 1920's. As mentioned Chinese working overseas are expats, and Filipinos and many millions of SE Asians working abroad to support their family. They are expats too.

What ScentOfAMemory said, exactly that.

Motivated by snobbery, racism or both, and born of that weird British trait of feeling to superior to everybody else for no apparent reason.

If you live somewhere else you are an immigrant to that country. Whatever you call yourself, no matter how poor or rich you are.

The actual word 'expatriate' just means someone who leaves their 'motherland' to live elsewhere. However, it usually carries a certain sense of ideology with it (say exile for political or ideological reasons, for or against your own country). I don't think moving somewhere because the weather is nicer and the cost of living lower qualifies.