Why do we call people expats and not rich migrants or something like that?
To all the other people talking about intent to settle or not: read the post. The author lived in China for 20 years and built a family there. They're not an "expat" under any technical definition of the word.
And yet he's leaving. He calls the US "home". So evidently he was an expat.
No he doesn't. He says it once, in the tagline, and gives no details.
It's not hard to understand.
At the same time, it's also clear that the status of the country determines whether people call themselves immigrants or expats. In the US people are immigrants, in Japan they're expats, for example. US citizens in particular very rarely refer to themselves as immigrants in my experience.
It's likely not an intentional choice, but a learned one, since other westerners around them use that term.
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/97835/difference...
Emigrants leave and immigrants come. It's two sides of the same coin. You can't emigrate without immigrating. Except if you manage to become stateless and remain on international territory.
Migrants is just the term without the direction. Which is unnecessary if you're not talking about the country they leave or move to.
An immigrant has an intent to settle, an expat doesn't. In America, one could theoretically lose work authorization should he refer or present himself as an immigrant.
Maybe wanting to move forever (i.e. migrant) is more common, if one is from a poorer country, which could explain why some others here thought that "immigrant" implied "poor and less educated".
2) Expatriate The term “expatriate” means— (A) any United States citizen who relinquishes his citizenship, and (B) any long-term resident of the United States who ceases to be a lawful permanent resident of the United States (within the meaning of section 7701(b)(6) ).
I can move to japan and marry a Japanese wife, work for a Japanese company, pay Japanese taxes, and speak fluent Japanese, but I will never be Japanese because my skin is white.
People can move to America, and as long as you speak English without an accent, there is an assumption that you are American.
If the place you move will assimilate you, then I would call that migrancy. If the place you move will never accept you, then I would call that ex-patriotism.
People who move to civil societies migrate, people who move to ethnic societies become ex-patriots.
I strongly recommend reading this: https://www.amacad.org/publication/what-does-it-mean-be-amer...
It really puts into perspective conservatism and liberalism by showing their contextual effects on immigration.
> I will never be Japanese because my skin is white.
> and as long as you speak English without an accent, there is an assumption that you are American.
> and speak fluent Japanese
I don't doubt your experience. I was projecting myself onto others, probably too much...
America is a big place. If you don't have that experience in big west coast cities, I would be a bit surprised. Likewise, I would expect well educated folks to also assume that lack of accent means American, not in an intentional way, but an automatic one.
There are large swathes of the US that I doubt would see anyone who isn't a white evangelical christian as American.
My intention was not to be black and white or absolutist, though I see how what I said reads that way.
> without accent?
Yes
> are you saying "Japanese" to mean "fit in as japanese" or "japanese nationality"?
In a way, I meant both. I meant for a Japanese person to apply the word "Japanese" to me casually. To see me as part of "us" when a Japanese person says "us" to mean Japanese.
I think if you read the article I linked, what I am trying to express will be clear. It is an extremely meaty read, but I feel like it is somewhat like taking the red pill when it comes to understanding politics and the political forces that govern us. American education has poked at the ideas in that article without providing the philosophical basis. I've heard "diversity" so many times, but never a real, non hand-wavy, explanation of why diversity is important or why we apply energy to it.