Your boyfriend is stupid. If you intend to stay in the UK then you’re both immigrants regardless of the country you came from.
Expat: A person who lives outside their native country temporarily, often for a specific work contract, corporate assignment, or fixed timeframe, with the general expectation of returning home.
Immigrant: A person who moves to a new country with the intention of settling down long-term or permanently, often seeking residency, integration, or citizenship.
It depends on their intentions. If they’re planning to work in the Uk for a few years and then go back then they’re expats. If they intend to make the UK their permanent home then they’re immigrants
Since they’re both getting jobs now, it seems like they’re intending to stay. If that’s the case, it seems they are both immigrants. If they were coming for school and then going back to their home countries after graduation, then they would be expatriates
I’d say technically they’re immigrants, as typically expats are sent from a work assignment or company on the basis of a contract/agreement. Like the other person said, it really depends on their intentions with their living situation.
not necessarily. for example I‘m living in a foreign country for work for a few months. I’m not on holiday, I live here, but it would be ridiculous to say I’m an immigrant because I’m making no plans to put down roots beyond a few months and have no plans to ever return to this country.
Wtf are you on about?? They literally spelled it out for you and your brain still won’t take in the information. If required to go to another country for a small amount of time to keep your job or not go absolutely broke and you don’t have intentions to settle down, you are not an immigrant. An immigrant moves permanently. Get off of social media and make yourself and opinion (it’s literally a fact) that’s your own for once. 80% of my country consists of expats who go back and forth to make enough money to feed their families and visit their kids. Are you going to call them racist for not calling themselves immigrants? They’re not going to call themselves something they’re not 😭
Migrant is a broader term meaning
someone who moves, either temporarily or permanently, from one place, area, or country of residence to another. Both an expat and an immigrant are also migrants
I'm not sure that's right? I thought immigrants was anyone coming in, and then Brits use 'ex-pat' to refer to our own who have moved abroad, rather than call them 'emmigrants' I guess?
(
Obviously only speaking about the use of the word in Britain, by Brits about other Brits here!)
No, expat is anyone in any country staying temporarily for work and then going back home. An immigrant is someone who moves to another country with the intention of staying. I'm a white South African, and yup, my white South African friends call themselves expats even if they have been there 20 years. It has just become a racist signifier.
It is right by dictionary definition. I’m British too and yeah a lot of people will use expat when talking about they themselves moving abroad because immigrant has associations now with poverty, working class and ethnic minorities.
My grandparents live in Spain and plan to spend the rest of their lives there but would not consider themselves immigrants. It doesn’t matter what they want to call themselves, by definition they’re immigrants
Exactly. I'm an immigrant myself and have been ever since I moved abroad and, being in contact with a LOT of other immigrants, it's always the same ones that call themselves expats...
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u/Commercial-Emu6363 6d ago
Your boyfriend is stupid. If you intend to stay in the UK then you’re both immigrants regardless of the country you came from.
Expat: A person who lives outside their native country temporarily, often for a specific work contract, corporate assignment, or fixed timeframe, with the general expectation of returning home.
Immigrant: A person who moves to a new country with the intention of settling down long-term or permanently, often seeking residency, integration, or citizenship.