Expat or migrant?

[MasterOfTheYoniverse]

After so many years abroad, it still strikes me that so many people are still reluctant to admit their condition as economic migrants.

There are lots of posts about going home/ settling for good, feeling alienated or outpriced. Grass is always greener etc......

I admit bluntly that we are expats because the money is better and life easier. Purely opportunistic.

Yes the life experience has more depth but at the end of the day, am an economic migrant. No different from an engineer from subsaharan country trying it out in Europe and hoping for a better life for their family.
I have hardly ever come accross a westerner who has admitted that blunt reality and accepted that parrallel.

Would love to hear your opinion!

I guess I see expats as temporary. Returning up there home. We are migrants as we have migrated to move permanently. Not financially better off. But happier? Better quality of life here.

We are migrants. No expat package, no contract, nothing that makes us feel like expats.

Decided to move, rented for many years, built a house and put DDs in a local school because we planned to stay permanently. Now we are unsure about that but still don't want to return to where we came from.

And yes, it was about money in the beginning. DH was made redundant and could not find employment until he took an opportunity that was presented for working over here. Then he set up on his own when the job turned sour.

Personally I have always felt that nothing stops me from describing myself as an expat even if I've done the third world to first world move (so to speak). After all I have seen the life styles of so called expats in my home country and they are definitely affording a more affluent lifestyle in the old colonies therefore they are economic migrants! yet for all the term economic migrant denotes a negative connotation whilst an expat gets all the acceptance and support... at least in my view.

my parents actively rejected the expat label. Mum was always clear we were economic migrants.

Although I was a white foreigner in a white country, so blended right in, I do think it has given me a greater appreciation of what it is like to be a foreigner or child of migrants in this country (harder than it looks. roots in both countries, at home in neither)

i was born in the new country and resented my parents calling England 'home' (we'll be going home for the summer holidays) and moving to uk as an adult made me feel expat-ish here (though not economic migrant. living standard had nothing to do with it).

I'm an economic migrant but so are the vast majority of people in this city. Many came from other parts of Canada to live here. As did people from all over the world.

We did it for the money and the better way of life.

Interesting - I consider myself an expat as this is a temporary location based on moving for work with the same company I was with in the UK. The term of the job is 4 years and after that you are expected to move to another location, overseas or back to UK again. Consequently house is rented not bought, mortgage still being paid in UK, buying furniture with a view to whether it would be needed in a future property too etc.
Yes, we've taken the location partly for economic reasons although going from 2 UK salaries to 1 expat and 1 local here means it's not a massive jump on paper - although lots of the activities we enjoy being less expensive and great holiday destinations being closer means a definite increase in standard of living. However, it was mainly done for career progression and to experience living somewhere else, better lifestyle is a plus but not the main driver and we know it's temporary.
For me a 'migrant' of any type is planning to make their permanent home in the new location. As an expat there's always the knowledge that it's just for a few years, friends will move in and out of your life as you or they move on and you maintain friendships as well as family relationships in the UK too, knowing that the separation is temporary.

Ive never considered myself to be an expat, but I did move here under my own steam (ie not with a job/relocation package) to study and then stayed to work.

Ive never really thought that Im an economic migrant either as I didnt move for more money/better job etc. i just moved because I wanted to change countries. I could have stayed in the Uk and done the same job but I wanted to move.

Have no intention of moving back unless DH or I get an amazing job opportunity...which wont happen as we're not looking for it!

I'm a migrant, I have no intention of moving back. We moved here under our own steam as my husband had a passport for this country and the country we were living in was going down the tubes financially ( Ireland). The recession made us move, and I'm so bloody glad we did! So yes I'm proud to say we are economic migrants, just like the polish back home, or subsaharan African or whatever, just lucky enough to have the means to emigrate through the proper channels really.

I am not sure what I would describe myself as, though definitely not an expat (married in new country, had kids, work on local contracts). I can see aspects of my situation that fit with those of an economic migrant as I enjoy a better standard of living than at home, though my wages are lower than they might have been, but as others said I came to my new country to study and stayed to marry, not for work. We need a new term.

I do agree with you that the expat/economic migrant distinction is almost non existent. In my limited experience expat is often used by people to indicate that they belong elsewhere, back in their "home" country and are not fully invested in the place they live. People who have really integrated into local society socially and linguistically tend not to use the term. I don't mean to say that one approach is the correct one, just that the choice of descriptor is fundamentally determined by your attitude to your host country rather than your actual status or circumstances.

Migrant here. You cannot be an expat after 15 years, several job changes, and a husband and baby picked up on the way. Not a migrant for economic reasons though, I was travelling, taking a look around and this is where I ended up.

Being an expat is job related and temporary - after a point you become a migrant.

What are we then if we have no intention of going back home but not sure to want to stay in one country?
We are in situation were we will keep moving as and when visas expire and new opportunities arise.
Its really driven by where we can raise our family to a minimum standard which for us is in this order: safety (rule of law & healthcare), as little red tape as possible, good schools, good work life balance.

"attitude to your country" is good gauge I think which definitely makes me an expat, then again, my children now have always studied Chinese as their second language and not english, french and arabic (ours)…..which makes them immigrants as they judge everything through the spectrum of this dominant culture, not ours?