...in hating the word 'expat'?

[vivasevilla]

Why do British people (not all) insist on calling themselves 'expats' when they choose to go and live abroad? They are, surely, immigrants, why not call themselves so? (is it possibly because they move abroad and then spend all their time in bars drinking 'cheap' gin and tonics, reading the Daily Mail and whinging about 'immigrants' and 'gangs of feral youth' in their own country while not bothering to learn the language of the country they have chosen to move to?)

YanknCock "I also like to remind people I'm an 'immigrant' when they start doing the 'they're taking our jobs' stuff around me."

I love this game. It isn't the jobs so much that people bitch about here but the fact that foreigners come the UK to make money and then send it home...ummmmm thinks of her mortgage and Australian bank account which is doing very nicely off the back of the sterling, thank you very much!

But of course they don't mean me, they mean those nasty Eastern Europeans who they then employ, because they just work so hard don't you know.

People are crazy - everywhere, people are pretty much the same, there are cultural variations but overall everyone has the same view of "foreigners".

Same here Morloth....Here's me earning that lovely Italian money, which goes straight into Johnny Boden's bank account

I often get (usually middle aged men) look me up and down and go "Polish?????" and then when I say "no, British" they come over all polite and ask me for lessons for their kids. I'm sure had I been Polish they'd have been asking me either to mop their floors, or their aged mothers' arses. One of my best friends here is Albanian and it is quite horrific how differently the two of us are treated.

haha Bucharest I am usually correcting from British to Australian when travelling. It amazes me how warm people are once they know you are Australian, I don't know why - we are way louder and more obnoxious then most other expats/tourists/immigrants.

I think people often mistake happy for nice.

And they all just think I've got Tourettes.

Whereabouts in Italy are you? I liked Italy, as a people I have noticed a tendency to loudness (and Sydney has a massive Italian community) so felt right at home. During this pregnancy I have been desperate for a huge bistecca - dripping with fat and wine that comes by the litre (well maybe not the wine).

What was really weird was how much Greece felt like Australia and pretty much everyone is either dual Greek/Australian or knows someone that you know or has lived around the corner from where you did.

Maybe "Global Citizen" is better than expat.

I don't give a rat's arse about the word "expat" - what I do find offensive however is the assumption that all Brits who settle abroad are living some sort of gin-soaked Eldorado style wideboy-on-the-run existence. I am a Brit living in The Netherlands in a regular job, in a regular town with Dutch friends. Nothing poncy or arsey here!

If there is one British trait that I have learned since living here skihorse it is that the Brits don't like themselves very much. It is possible to take self deprecating to an extreme and it is something that I notice a lot, both on Mumsnet and in RL.

Argh I live in Thailand and there are 'expats' everywhere in my area. The whole sex-tourism thing attracts a lot of weirdos who want to stay, but there are also people here -like myself- working in a kindergarten, who are still referred to as expats, as are the 'inadequate loser types' who trawl the bars. I find myself cringing constantly at disgusting and rude behaviour of my fellow ex-patriots. I had an argument with a German man recently in Tescos (Lotus) because he pushed a Thai girl out of the way, cutting in at the checkout, saying "We are guests here, you should let us in front of you!" She wouldnt move, so he pushed her, she pushed back, and then he chucked all her shopping on the floor. DISGUSTING PIG! So I told him he was a guest here, and should respect other people and their culture. He made me thoroughly ashamed. Happens all the time! I DO NOT want to be associated with the same term 'expat'.

Rant over. steps off my high horse, lol

Isis I bet he's extremely horrible in Germany too though

Yeah you're prob right, just pishes me off being lumped in with a load of dickheads that dont work or spend their pension money on hookers and beer and are abusive and rude to people here...

Here's one definition:

I have never come across someone who refers to themselves as an expat who has the intention to settle permanently in a county. If English, they would still think of England as "home"

im·mi·grant (m-grnt)
n.

1. A person who leaves one country to settle permanently in another.
2. A plant or animal that establishes itself in an area where it previously did not exist.

adj. Of or relating to immigrants or the act of immigrating.

I still think of England as home. I miss it. I guess that is why I am on here all the time!

What a strange op. How very cross you are.

I would say in general use, immigrant is when you go to stay: expat is temporary?

Third Culture is a good term I think.

Ah yes, I have also been involved in "these immigrants, coming here taking out jobs/benefits ... blah blah blah"

Me: "erm, I'm an immigrant"
Racist person: "oh no, not you. The other non white immigrants"

Isis, the term you were looking for is sex-pat, a well known and pitied beastie in SEAsia. Despite often having the same origins as the 'expat', has nothing, absolutely nothing, in common with the latter.
A sad, pathetic numptie who simply can't get laid in his own country. Or prefers underage boys/girls in which case he should not be pitied but hanged
I lived in Far East, SEAsia for couple of decades (yes, faaaabulous, often gin-or- similar-soaked, private beaches and lots of staff type lifestyle - was working for large multinational), yet never did I witness a situation similar to what you are describing here. One wonders which part of Thailand are you describing as there are soo many dives, as are elsewhere in the world of course, in Bkk and most large cities.

Most ex-pats are living 'abroad' because that is where their work has taken them rather than immigrants who have chosen to become permanent residents of a new country.So we were expats in Sierra Leone where OH was lecturing at the university for 6 years but my son is an immigrant in Turkey where he works [for a Uk company]and has bought a house,his wife is Turkish,his daughter has dual nationality and Turkish is their first language at home.He has turned down opportunities to return to the UK and is a fully integrated member of his local community.He has emigrated.

I started as an expat (sent by UK company to head office abroad for a fixed period with accommodation provided by them).
Ended up meeting DH and staying. So now I am a lifer.

In any case they would be emigrants not immigrants surely ?

I get the anger at the negative connotations attached to the word "immigrant" in the UK. A close friend of mine who is originally from France and pays more tax in a year than most people earn in 5 loves to point out that she is an immigrant when faced with the "they steal our jobs" brigade. Of course the response is always "I don't mean people like you"!

However I am an expat. My description of myself as thus is based entirely on my transitory lifestyle that takes me from one country to the next every few years. My "home" and indeed my "house" is in the UK. The places where I live whilst overseas are temporary. I am a visitor in the countries in which I stay with no intention of making them my permenant home therefore describing myself as an immigrant is factually incorrect.

Bizarre OP.

yummy you're right! you just beat me to saying it....

british person gone abroad never again to darken these shores = emigrant (or, you can frenchify to emigre)

Unless you were a resident of the country to which they had moved...in which case you would refer to them as immigrants because they would be coming in...

absolutely. therefore in the land of Oz, they call ex-British residents immigrants (correctly) - i would call them emigrants. There is also an Expat British community in Austrailia....(which funnily enough, does get some of the 'taking our jobs' treatment in the Aussie press - anyone who has been through the process of getting a work visa there will tell you it is not easy)

I do not see the term 'expat' as smug - it speaks to me of being the eternal stranger in a strange land.

Absolutely, an ex pat and an immigrant are two very different things, so stating that you hate one because all of them are hideous is a very odd statement!

Most expats are expats for a short or long term but many expect to return to the UK, ime.

I've met children of expats that have a first language that is not the same as the country they are born in, parents both from other countries to the one they live in and quite clearly immigrants(whites living in China), they have nowhere to really call home...