People leaving are emigrants. People entering are immigrants. Expat is just a word to whitewash the immigrant label. I say this as an american emigrant who knows “expats” in my new home country.
I can’t tell if you’re joking but it’s an abbreviation of patriate not patriot > same root but patriot implies liking or serving the country and patriate - from patria - just means “from that country”
Expat is a casual term referring to someone whose employer sent them overseas on a posting. Diplomats are the most obvious example, but companies will use the same employment structure.
Different jurisdictions have different official terminology for this type of migrant worker, but their legal status in the host country is typically different to that of other categories of migrant worker in the same country, they are usually paid & taxed in their home country, and employed under the regulations of their home country (though in some instances, a host country may extend protections or impose obligations over them).
The confusion arises because when the UK had an Empire, huge numbers were sent abroad to run it, whether for companies like the East India Company, or as civil servants or on military postings, and so the British now think of “people who live abroad” as “expats” because that’s the word the older generations always heard, and then continued to use long after this ceased to be the predominant vehicle for of British to be living outside the UK.
The word is absolutely couched in a colonial past, but those using the term to describe other types of British people overseas are not generally doing so out of some sense of white supremacy or British exceptionalism, but plain old lack of awareness.
Yeah, while I think expat is a bit of a silly word, it’s a lot more precise. Just saying “immigrant” could mean an immigrant living here or an immigrant to another country from here.
It’s also way more concise and therefore headline-friendly: “Expats say XYZ” vs “British immigrants in ABC say XYZ” or “Overseas Brits say XYZ” (and that one introduces confusion about whether they are overseas as in on holiday/temporary work or overseas as in living there).
That seems to imply immigrants move to countries to laze around and do nothing.
You’re not allowed to stay in the country anyway if you don’t have a job or have some kind of visa that doesn’t require you to work. “Expats” are immigrants like the rest of them.
What makes them “British expats” and not regular old “immigrants”? Oh their wealth? Maybe their skin colour
immigrants actually help the economy and try to integrate. expats expect wherever they go to cater to them, and extract wealth for their own benefit
Yeah but white people in a foreign country gottl to cope
I am a nomad Capitalist 🤡
Direction? To Britain they’re expats, to Spain they’re immigrants? (or whatever the Spanish word for Immigrants is, I suppose.)
People leaving are emigrants. People entering are immigrants. Expat is just a word to whitewash the immigrant label. I say this as an american emigrant who knows “expats” in my new home country.
Expat is a corporate term for employees working temporary on companies from one country working on another.
I don’t how being an ex-patriot is a good thing for those of a nationalistic bent.
I can’t tell if you’re joking but it’s an abbreviation of patriate not patriot > same root but patriot implies liking or serving the country and patriate - from patria - just means “from that country”
We can always pretend that isn’t true so it isn’t such a neutral term.
To the UK they are emigrants.
Expat is a casual term referring to someone whose employer sent them overseas on a posting. Diplomats are the most obvious example, but companies will use the same employment structure.
Different jurisdictions have different official terminology for this type of migrant worker, but their legal status in the host country is typically different to that of other categories of migrant worker in the same country, they are usually paid & taxed in their home country, and employed under the regulations of their home country (though in some instances, a host country may extend protections or impose obligations over them).
The confusion arises because when the UK had an Empire, huge numbers were sent abroad to run it, whether for companies like the East India Company, or as civil servants or on military postings, and so the British now think of “people who live abroad” as “expats” because that’s the word the older generations always heard, and then continued to use long after this ceased to be the predominant vehicle for of British to be living outside the UK.
The word is absolutely couched in a colonial past, but those using the term to describe other types of British people overseas are not generally doing so out of some sense of white supremacy or British exceptionalism, but plain old lack of awareness.
Big up yourself for a solid, informative answer!
Yeah, while I think expat is a bit of a silly word, it’s a lot more precise. Just saying “immigrant” could mean an immigrant living here or an immigrant to another country from here.
It’s also way more concise and therefore headline-friendly: “Expats say XYZ” vs “British immigrants in ABC say XYZ” or “Overseas Brits say XYZ” (and that one introduces confusion about whether they are overseas as in on holiday/temporary work or overseas as in living there).
It’s a term that rustles my jimmies. You’re an expat if you’re moving to a country for work, you’re an immigrant if you are moving to live.
That seems to imply immigrants move to countries to laze around and do nothing. You’re not allowed to stay in the country anyway if you don’t have a job or have some kind of visa that doesn’t require you to work. “Expats” are immigrants like the rest of them.
Yeah I think you’re reading too much into that statement.
Spitting that 🔥