Comment by mc32
2 days ago
immigrants are people who tend to stay and don’t have plans to return to their home countries. Expats are temporary immigrants typically paid by their company to move and intend to move back to their home countries once the assignment is over.
“Expat” is how white well-off immigrants expect to be addressed to differentiate themselves from other immigrants.
Ain't nobody calling seasonal minimum-wage workers "expats".
True, but I'm talking about native English speakers. Those people likely have their own terminology in their own language to describe themselves.
Also an ex-patriate is typically in the professional class. So those "English" teachers who teach in Japan, etc., may think of themselves as ex-pats or try to frequent "ex-pat" hangouts but they aren't necessarily because of two things: one, they have not been working at their home office and then transferred and typically they do not hold prelesional degrees -though they may hold "certificates" or whatever. They are in effect temporary workers on a limited stay visa, often needing annual renewal by hopping to a third country to have it renewed themselves. For ex-pats all this or arranged by their employers.
"expat" is rich, "immigrant" is poor. People use the word "expat" to signal they're rich, or at least they want to be.
Here, your theory goes out of the window.
2 replies →
Expat is an Anglo work migrant, they insist on the distinction as it's in their titular language.
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Perhaps less visible but also more numerous are the guys from China who are too poor to afford the bridewealth who go to poor SEAsian countries to find their brides but also can frequent the hourly hotels that cater specifically to Japanese to Chinese clientele. Euros and N. Americans stand out due to their physical differences.
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