Expat vs Immigrant: 3 Crucial Differences & Why They are Important

Recently, there has been a growing number of people traveling worldwide. Many of them either visit countries as tourists or settle in places for quite a long time. The latter group is made up of either expats or immigrants. There’s also an interesting tendency not to differentiate between these two groups of people. Some even say that they’re quite similar. In reality, this observation is incorrect.

This article will explain the difference between the terms expat vs immigrant, and why this difference is important if you’re planning to move to a new country.

Expat vs Immigrant: Brief Definitions

Expat

An expat, or expatriate (originating from the Latin word expatriatus – “out of one’s native country”), is a person who resides in a country that’s different from their home country for work or lifestyle reasons. On a frequent basis, these expats are either business professionals, digital nomads, or retirees who temporarily live in another country.

Expats typically move to areas with global business hubs, such as those near multinational companies, or to locations with lower living costs. Expats have a high movement rate, moving from one country to another, but never settling permanently in any location. Most expatriates eventually plan to return to their home country.

Immigrant

An immigrant (from the Latin verb immigrare – “to migrate into” or “to move into”) is someone who moves into a new country with the idea of permanently living there. Immigrants move for various reasons, either for better economic growth and benefits or to escape long-term political unrest. As they settle in, they try to fully integrate into their new country without the intention of going back to their native place.

Unfortunately, immigrants, unlike expats, face many more challenges when it comes to getting work permits, culturally adapting, and receiving citizenship. Plus, there are social and political forces that pressurise them much more than expatriates experience.

The Nuances of Expat and Immigrant Experience

After defining these two terms in their basic essence, let’s get into more specific details of what makes the expat and immigrant experiences differ from each other.

Motives for Living Abroad

As we have established before, the core of the difference between expats’ and immigrants’ lives abroad lies in their purpose for the length of stay.

Expats move abroad for a temporary period, either due to a new job opportunity or for a cultural experience, but they don’t wilfully break ties with their native country. On the contrary, they intend to go back to their home after achieving their goals abroad.

Immigrants, on the other hand, move to a new country with the idea of a permanent stay. They want to break any economic or political ties, but not always cultural ones, with their home country. Immigrants, unlike expats, do their best to successfully fit into a new country and obtain their citizenship.

But it’s important to mention that expats can become immigrants too. This only happens if an expat decides to change their mind and move into a new place permanently instead of temporarily.

Work & Employment Status

Apart from intentions, expats and immigrants face different legal obligations and privileges when it comes to their employment status.

Expats move to a new country due to a specific job opportunity or business purpose. They’re usually invited or sent by a multinational company or for political service. Expats secure job contracts, which in turn grant them a temporary visa in the specific country of their work placement. Any short-term work visa means that expats fall under specific labour and resident laws for each country, which is recommended to research before moving. In addition, expats have a much easier way of movement into other countries due to corporate support in securing a visa and providing benefits, like housing allowances.

For immigrants, their situation is typically different from expatriates. Instead of having material support from companies like expats do, immigrants have to start life from scratch on their own. They might be given the right to legally stay in a new country, but it doesn’t mean getting all the additional benefits for a small start-up boost in a new place. This means that immigrants have to explore job markets that are different from their own native country and might not be familiar with them.

This requires going through various challenges when it comes to getting work permits and the correct legal documentation to simply work, even as a plumber. Unfortunately, this proves to be very challenging for most immigrants due to various reasons.

Social Reputation

Another factor that plays into the difference between expats and immigrants is the social reputation that they carry with them in society. This might seem to have no meaning on the surface because of its recognisable non-materialistic essence. Despite that, social reputation contributes to the livelihood of both expats and immigrants.

Expatriates are often recognised from either a neutral or a positive perspective. In most cases, expats are typically professionals coming from wealthier nations to countries with different economic conditions, mostly with very low GDP rates. They are seen as newcomers who can contribute to the social and economic aspects of these countries, before moving back to their native home or to a new country to make more contributions. In this case, expats rarely face any challenges in their social life, and people welcome them easily.

Immigrants have a different story. Because of their intentions to permanently settle in and become citizens of a new country, they tend to face more discrimination in societies. This is related to the immigrants’ socioeconomic status and their country of origin, mainly underdeveloped countries facing poverty. They’re seen as people who, unlike expats, don’t bring any contribution, but rather want to take advantage of the country’s benefits (which is false). So, as stated in the previous section, immigrants have problems obtaining legal work permits due to this particular bias.

Why is All This Information Important?

After reading all these definitions and differences between expats and immigrants, a question might arise in some readers’ minds: “Why is all this important and relevant?”

Well, there are two main reasons for knowing this difference and how it can help your situation as a traveller and society as a whole.

Understanding Your Intentions for Living Abroad

It’s unremarkable to make the mistake of using the terms ‘expats’ and ‘immigrants’ interchangeably and saying that they’re the same. This can cause problems for any person who dreams of moving and living abroad.

• How to Choose the Right Country to Move To

It’s important to first understand the specific ideas of why anyone would want to live abroad. Based on these intentions, it is easier to determine what status you’d have, as an expat or an immigrant, and what documents you would need to obtain to make the moving process successful. If you, for example, think that you want to live the life of an expat, but have the initial intentions of settling permanently in a new place, you might accidentally gather the wrong documents and fail at achieving your goal, and vice versa.

Additionally, understanding the social and material circumstances of expats and immigrants can help you prepare for what you will go through whilst living abroad, depending on your chosen status. This is also beneficial if you have a small child who might have a different experience in a foreign country with a different culture.

• The Phenomenon of the Third Culture Kid: The Identity Crisis of Moving Abroad

So, after you decide you want to live abroad, firmly establish your purposes and goals to determine what type of lifestyle you want to live.

Make Our Society Better Together

One of the aspects of living abroad is facing challenges that might hinder your social life. Immigrants, as we have stated before, sadly experience discrimination in society and often face legal challenges in obtaining documents, whilst expats rarely or never experience that.

This prejudice is very dominant and blatantly false. Both expats and immigrants contribute to the economy of the country where they live, but each does so differently, with their own specific intentions and circumstances. Instead of falling into this failing assumption, it’s important for immigrants and expats to come together and support each other, since both of them are foreigners in their new country. Fortunately, there are many immigrant/expat support groups in each country, which the Babylon Radio website provides, where any foreigner can connect and establish a strong sense of community. This type of gathering can help both expats and immigrants feel less lonely and isolated in a new country.

This collaboration between expats and immigrants is very beneficial for keeping the positive image of foreigners, positively contributing to any country around the world, whilst also improving societies for the better.

Key Takeaway

It’s very interesting how a seemingly irrelevant topic, like expats vs. immigrants, contains so much important information when it comes to living abroad. It’s always important not to overlook this kind of information, since it can help you resolve your inner conflict about deciding whether you want to live in a foreign country and for what reasons. It can also give you a different picture of the world we live in and how we can change it for the better.

If you enjoyed reading this article and want to learn about the lives of expats, please check our other articles on the Babylon Website for more information on moving-in processes and cultural events around the globe.