The difference between expats and immigrants

Have you ever wondered why some people who move to work in a different country are called expats while others are called immigrants? The labels don’t reflect different reasons behind the move, because both groups leave their previous home to find a better life elsewhere.

Beyond that, there are often underlying reasons that some people distinguish between the two (spoiler alert: it’s xenophobia).

So, what is the difference between expats and immigrants, exactly?

Immigrant vs expat: what are their definitions?

One place to start is with the standard dictionary definitions of expats and immigrants:

• Expatriate: someone who lives outside of their native country
• Immigrant: someone who comes to live permanently in another country

Right off the bat, we see a problem: both words apply to anyone who lives outside of their ‘native’ country. These definitions get even more complicated when you try to untangle what a person’s native country actually is.

Is it the country a person was born in? Does it have to do with citizenship? Or is it where someone grew up? What if they moved around quite a bit as a child? The idea of someone having three native countries is a bit far-fetched, but it’s just as misguided as assuming the country on the cover of someone’s passport is the country they identify with the most.

The word ‘permanently’ hints at a difference. It portrays immigrants as having moved forever (whether intentionally or not). Expats, on the other hand, are just on a temporary assignment before they pack their bags again for the next country.

However, many immigrants leave their country, not because they’ve ruled out returning to it, but because they’re unable to stay there for the time being.

Then again, if expats count as temporary residents, it makes you wonder about expatriate families who’ve stayed put in the same country for decades as permanent residents. How permanent is permanent, anyway?

Integrating into a country that doesn’t want you

Maybe the difference between expats and immigrants lies in integration into the host community. This isn’t the best differentiator, though; conservative locals welcome neither expats nor immigrants.

Xenophobes who want to take their country back don’t want outsiders to integrate anyway. They rather keep their country homogenous. Locals resent expats for living in isolated compounds or low-income immigrants for living in areas with other minorities. However, hostility towards non-locals doesn’t do anything to make an immigrant want to adapt.

What it boils down to is simple stereotypes: a Polish person working as a carpenter in the Netherlands isn’t an expat, but his brother working as a financial analyst in Singapore is.

The term ‘expat’ carries a more positive connotation than ‘immigrant’. When we imagine what a group of expats looks like, it involves high-rise offices, luxurious homes, and after-work antics in upscale bars. The imaginary expat probably works as a financier or an engineer. Even if the locals dislike expats, there’s usually a bit of acceptance offered their way because government policies offer incentives to develop an industry.

The connotations of ‘immigrant’ are more negative. Imagine the domestic worker, the taxi driver, the janitor, the manual laborer. No matter the country, these immigrants share some things in common; they’re likely earning a low income in a substandard work environment. They probably moved for menial labor where the minimum wage is comparatively higher. Worst of all, they’re frequent targets of discrimination.

Whatever the labels, you’re an ‘other’. You represent a country within someone else’s nation, a foreign body in someone else’s space.

The language of expats and immigrants

Perhaps the difference between expats vs immigrants lies in our entitlement to the languages we brought along with us on the move.

Expat children often attend international schools, which teach the language they speak at home. These schools often educate in just one language, which means that it’s fine for younger expats to remain monolingual.

Immigrant children generally attend local schools that teach in the local language. These schools also educate in just one language, which means that first-generation immigrants must, in principle, become multilingual. What happens in practice, though, is that these children often find themselves discouraged from sticking to any other language than the mainstream one.

There might be a few blurry edges here, though.

Like immigrant families, multilingual expat families also need to keep their languages in good working order. Linguistic mistakes might further impact the way locals perceive new arrivals. But even when you speak the local language fluently, you may still experience discrimination and xenophobia. In the eyes of many, integration just isn’t possible unless you wipe clean your history and your culture.

Ultimately, the difference between expats and immigrants shouldn’t be important; we’re all just trying to carve a path toward a better life.