by Margarita
Recently an interesting discussion took place on the Expatriate and Cross-Cultural Success Facebook page – when do we consider ourselves expats and 
when are we immigrants? So I’ve decided to try to explore it and I thought we’d start with a dictionary definition. According to Miriam-Webster:
- the word “Expatriate” is actually a verb or an adjective and means someone “living in a foreign land”.
- the word “Immigrant” is a noun and means “a person who comes to a country to take permanent residence”.
If we go only by these definitions above, I see one major distinction that sets them apart. Immigrants have an intention to stay – whereas for the expatriates this intention isn’t mentioned and isn’t clear.
Put another way, immigrants may have a larger emotional commitment to their new place of residence – and, thus, their approach to making it is different. If expatriates know that they can always leave and they know it coming into the country already – how much effort will they try to put into… (a) finding ways to belong; (b) creating connections, (c) absorbing new ways of being, (d) making life-long friends, etc, etc, etc?
Everyone is different of course and I am not stating that temporary assignment expats don’t have the commitment to create the best life they can in their new country. Yet, I think, the knowledge that they can always leave creates a degree of comfort that “if it doesn’t work, it’s okay because three years from now I am leaving anyway.” Immigrants don’t have that luxury.
What do you think?
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I have no doubt that the length of projected time has a profound effect on the emotional ‘buy-in’. The short list you gave in an EXCELLENT one: (a) finding ways to belong; (b) creating connections, (c) absorbing new ways of being, (d) making life-long friends. Those are the thing that must take place for successful sense of belonging.
I suppose the exception to the “expat” vs. “immigrant” is when immigrants cluster together, perpetuate their original community and culture, and fail to connect in their new world, no matter how long they live there.
Great discussion.
By the way, I would sure like to see the author’s name on these articles. I’d much prefer to say, “Excellent point, Bill”. Or, “Thanks for raising a great question, Sue.” For now I’m stuck with, “Great discussion….ummm…you there at the keyboard.”
LOL, Ron.
I keep forgetting to include my name — but I just did it now!
Thanks for the comment and for bringing up an important point of “clustering together”.
thank you for sharing this… people often take one expression for the other… thanks for the clarification… i myself, am both: am expat living and working all over, who immigrated (from Brazil) to the USA over 10 yrs ago, and now, tries to teach and explain our children the differences and adjustments that need to be done… Greetings and success.
Margarita, you have hit the nail on the head when you talk about the commitment of the itinerant to living in the new location. Some expats arrive with one set of expectations and grow to love the new culture/life more than expected. It has happened with some of my clients. Others arrive, make less-than-favorable comparisons to the life “back home,” and can’t wait to leave when the assignment is over.
An important third group to discuss is refugees. They really don’t want to be where they’ve landed, “home” being what it is to all of us, but have relocated because of necessity. Kids, of course, are more adaptable; the adults often spend years resisting a commitment because they keep imagining repatriation–which often never comes.
Very true about the refugees, Alan, thanks for bringing them into this discussion. I agree about some refugees being “closer” to expats on the commitment scale because of the hope of return, yet that’s not always the case, especially for refugees with no right of return.
I would be tempted to add another group which is that of “refugees/asylum seekers” – let alone Rom, if I base my observation on the groups of people living here in France where I re-entered after c 25 years living as an expatriate in various places. I am very interested in your definitions and I agree with them. I also pretty much agree with the observation Sue made about the way immigrants cluster together and feel they do not have much other choice based on the fact that they may not have been given the opportunity to integrate in their host country. I also think of the way each of them, expats, immigrants, refugees, are being perceived in general by their families back in their native country. Emmanuelle
Thanks, Emmanuelle, for your comment — you brought up the refugees at the same time as a commenter above (read my response there about that group).
It’s interesting to consider the perception of each group back home and how that affects their standing in the new country. I think that’ a topic of discussion in and of itself!
Nice article!
I just want to say that if you’re coming from a third-world country like me, the locals may consider you as an immigrant even though you’re an expat. But if you’re from western/northern countries living in the east/south, you’ll always be considered an expat no matter what. I found this interesting.
Interesting observation, Chrysant — thanks for adding it to the discussion!
I really enjoyed the comments and ideas. I have yet another group for you: spouses who marry into a culture. According to your criteria above, they are neither immigrants (for they may not have actively chosen to move to the new culture) nor expatriates (for they will not be moving on to someplace else) nor refugees/asylum seekers. Any ideas on what they could be called? Bicultural? Or would their children be the bicultural ones?
That’s a very interesting question, thanks for contributing it! It seems to me that spouses who marry into the culture can be either immigrants (even though they moved for love, they still made an active choice to move) or expatriates for the time being (they can always move back home, if they choose to). My 2 cents…
Margarita
I know this is an old thread, but I feel compelled to add my 2 cents. My family moved to the U.S. from England when I was 3 1/2. My Father was an Immigrant. My Mother was (and has remained) a resentful but resigned Expatriate. I grew up not knowing what I was, and still don’t (I’m 48). I never received any encouragement from my Mother about living in the U.S., and grew up with the attitude that “American = Bad; British = Good”. That’s ridiculous, of course, but today I live in Alaska and I feel that this was inevitable because I live in the “last frontier” – it’s America but is not like the “lower 48″. It was either this or Canada, I think. Even though my whole life has been in this country I still cannot bring myself to identify as American, and am still a British citizen. I have never found an expat child who can identify with my experience. If anyone knows of such a person I would love to correspond with them about their experiences.
Cheers,
Susan in AK
Hi Susan,
I don’t know anyone who has had a similar experience as yours in childhood, but perhaps you can post this question and request on the Expat Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/GlobalCoachCenter and I’ll be happy to re-post it on a main wall for visibility. On a personal note, I’d highly recommend working with someone (a coach or a therapist) to work through some of the issues that have accumulated.
Warmly,
Margarita
Susan, just wanted to reply quickly to say I have a friend whose parents were immigrants, and he, like you, grew up hearing a lot of negativity about his country and was given a sense of “this isn’t our home”. He moved abroad (interestingly, not to his parents’ home country) as soon as he was able, but nearly a decade abroad cemented in his mind that his birth country IS his home, and he happily moved back.
It’s not exactly the same situation as yours, but I just wanted to let you know that I don’t think you’re alone in your general experience and feelings.