What do you consider yourself? What's the difference?

http://www.theguardian.com/global-devel ... ?CMP=fb_gu

Expat, because immigrant sounds so third-class.

Seriously though, I guess we're immigrants - no exit strategy.

There needs to be a third option:

Emigre/Emigrant.


An expat is someone who may (or not) return home one day/often. Whether it's for family/business/personal reasons, they need to be back home for extended periods of time, but gladly settle down abroad for other times.

An immigrant settles down in their new country, works/has (local) family/property, etc. May return once and awhile back home for a visit.

An emigrant leaves their home country but doesn't know/hasn't figured out where they want to settle down. They do know going home is not an option/choice/preference and probably have very little to nothing there anymore, as the immigrant knows, but they're not as permanent in their current country.

Cosmopolitan,Outsider,Third Culture Individual,Immigrant.

I always thought the term seemed somehow anachronistic and archaic. I only think of myself occasionally being an expat because the non-Cambodian people and groups I associate with call themselves that. StroppyChops has an interesting idea, maybe expat means you have an exit strategy, while immigrant does not. My wife's family just refers to all those like me as a foreigner, which does not in itself denote high or low status.

But we could use another term, how about one of these?

alien
castoff
deportee
émigré
evacuee
exile
foreigner
fugitive
gringo
importee
incomer
interloper
looser
newcomer
noncitizen
nonnative
outcast
outlander
outsider
pariah
persona non grata
refugee
settler
stranger
traveler
visitor
or what we all are really, a spy

Cambodianspysonline.com

I have always considered expat temporary and immigrant permanent. It is interesting in Cambodia though, because one can be an "expat" while doing nothing to pursue citizenship and remain in the country indefinitely. You certainly can't do that in any of the countries we come from. I have an American friend who has lived in the Netherlands for about for about three years and she calls herself an expat, but she is there on an education visa and has never pursued citizenship and has no interest (at this time) in doing so. I suppose if she did that she'd be an immigrant.

I think the article was interesting in highlighting the way the terms are used racistly, but I don't think they're inherently racist; there is a difference between a person who lives in a country briefly and one who moves there with the intention of putting down roots.

General Mackevili wrote:This thread is funny. I was just telling Vlad last week that I consider him to be more of an immigrant than an expat.

Was this on the forum? I do seem to recall you making a post similar to this one last week...