to hate the term 'ex-pat'?

[manicinsomniac]

I know this is a trivial first world gripe. I'm just making it anyway

I cannot stand the word. Why do (generally) white, (usually) affluent Brits get to be ex-pats while other people looking for a (presumably) better life elsewhere get stuck with the (now seen negatively) word 'immigrant'.

To me it just seems like British people who move abroad somehow think they're better or more worthy of their move than other people who do it.

I realise the word has historical context but that no longer applies.

AIBU to think that ex-pats should just be called immigrants like everyone else? Immigration isn't a bad thing. Requiring a different word sort of makes it seem like it is.

I believe British people can now retire in Saudi regardless of religion. You have to keep your bank account there and reside 2/3 of the year to maintain your RP. I imagine a queue of red faced Aberdonian engineers in their 60s choosing to stay in Jeddah rather than retire to the usual choice, Pattaya where they are not actually very welcome.

How is it cheating? I have lived in the ME tax free for 20 years. I don't need to pay UK tax because I don't live there. I have medical insurance, life insurance and pay NI contributions.

F1 drivers, as an example.

Sadly I don't think I earn enough to need to make decisions based on tax! It is a strange position to be in. I balance it by paying for things that are important to me back home with a portion of my salary. I supply the refreshments for a weekly Alzeimers support group, pay for the electicity at the drug and alcohol charity and bought the fitted kitchen for a mental health lunch club in my home town. So in a way I hope I contribute the same but in a direct way just not via the government

You probably contribute more to the country that way than if your tax went through the government first.

I think this thread is a bit daft. I don't think there is any issue here.

I was an ex-pat but I wasn't an immigrant. I moved from country to county with work on a temporary basis. I had temporary work visas and maintained my UK presence (paid tax! pensions etc)

All the other ex-pats I knew were the same. BTW I knew loads of none 'white' ex-pats. In fact, now I think about it, the majority were not white. I guess most were middle class as they were skilled workers.

Parents both worked in Africa for over 20 years. Didn't intend to remain there so were ex-pat not immigrants to the countries in question. They both "mixed", sent their children to local schools and served their local communities - as did other but not all expats. Equally there were expats in the Twenties called DBS - distressed British subjects - who'd gone out after WW1 to look for jobs - but had to be repatriated when it didn't work. They were economic migrants, but slightly different since they didn't intend to stay forever either - more like the EU economic migrants than the desperate Somalis/Sudanese/Nigerians. IMO economic migrants are those looking for a better life while working, while refugees are fleeing war/intolerance etc - though there's clearly a huge crossover between the two terms often people fleeing violence are also escaping the poverty and lack of work in war-torn countries. Detention centres are not full of Oz, South African and NZ people because they tend to come on student/work permits, whatever their colour, and some because they have dual nationality any road.

I like waiting's term of temporary guest.

DH is a perpetual expat - he does not choose which country he moves to, work send him on a full package including shipping, housing, flights home, schooling, medical insurance, pet transportation, salary as well as a per diem allowance. Every time we move, it is only for between 6 months and 2 years. His company move us around on short-term notice, we don't decide this.

In a few years, we will look to emigrate. It will be on our terms, we decide where we go, the house we live in and pay for it ourselves. It will also probably be permanent, ie gaining residency.

I think there is a big difference. Amongst people I know, those who have done overseas assignments get the difference more than those who haven't.

Amongst people I know, those who have done overseas assignments get the difference more than those who haven't.

Quite.

What a strange, chippy little thread.

I was brought up abroad, we were ex-patriate. We sometimes went to local schools, sometimes international, had almost no British friends but knew many people who were also expats, most of whom weren't white.

Several countries we lived in had local populations who saw everyone as inferior and that second-clas citizenry was enshrined in law.

You sound a bit bigoted and keen to stereotype, OP.

On reflection I think the 'phrase' can be a bit of an easy/lazy short-cut and may mean different things to different people and in different contexts

Did you actually just say 'people of colour?' Uck.

Which term would you prefer? People of colour seems to be the most commonly used term these days, but if people take issue with it I would like to know why and see if I can make my terminology more appropriate?

Did you actually just say 'people of colour?' Uck.

Which term would you prefer? People of colour seems to be the most commonly used term these days, but if people take issue with it I would like to know why and see if I can make my terminology more appropriate?

What do you prefer? BAME people or PoC or non-white people?

I don't use BAME, as simply there are more PoC on this earth than there are white, so they are not ethnic minority groups. They may be in the context of the U.K., but we are talking about immigration globally here.

Well from my extensive research watching years of A Place In The Sun the term expats is used extensively in reality by people who have no intention of returning.

Cos there's a bit in each episode where they always interview "expats Brian and Pat, who live in a bustling yet cosy expat community" .

Brian and Pat go to great lengths to say that a) there's tons of "expats" here so you wouldn't feel lonely, b) you definitely don't need the language as Brian has never got the hang of it and c) no they'd NEVER return to the UK now, no way!

Good grief, I just had to google 'BAME' - every day's a school day.

Brian and Pat will come back to the UK to have their hips done though, usually after enquiring what it might cost on the Costa del Sol. They will be all patriotic and British and insist that they have 'paid their rates' and wave their UK passport about. They will be most up out when it is pointed out to them that just because they 'still have a UK address' (their daughter and family have live in their house since they left 15 years ago) does not count for tuppence if they have been living out of the country for more than 8 months of the last year.
Poor Brian and Pat. All they wanted was sun, cheap booze, good company - and free-at-the-point-of-delivery healthcare

Yep, I'm an expat where I live. I'm not an immigrant, I do not live here Permanently.

When I decide where to live, I'll probably be an immigrant. But for now, I'm just a forriner living somewhere else. I do not intend, nor would I be allowed, to live here permanently.

All I know is all my friends that aren't white find the term really, really offensive.

See I read BAME as Black, Asian and minority ethnic people. Meaning that Black and Asian people are not in the minority.

I am an expat - I always took the term to mean that I am temporarily living in a country of which I am not a citizen - as opposed to an immigrant, who wishes to live in a new country permanently.

Bummy are you sure it's PoC they object to rather than coloured people? Which is offensive. PoC is an Americanism but I don't find that people are necessarily offended by it.

MrsTerry, that would sense from the way you read it, I read it as Black And Minority Ethnic.

Drives me mad on a Place In The Sun when they go on about how there's a big ex-pat community, which is great because they don't speak the language. The attitude towards immigrants in this country vs the attitude towards British people who have emigrated is ridiculous,