Reply to I'm an American expat living overseas, AMA

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP you don’t qualify for this kind of AMA.  You are taken care of before you even arrive to your new destination. You don’t have to figure anything out, you don’t need to worry about how things work, utilities, rental agreements, work permits, schools for your kids, nothing. You don’t even have to pack up your things. I admire people that leave everything behind taking huge risks just for the sake of a life changing experience.

And by the way, I lived in 3 different counties, and I was very excited when I read the title. [/quote]

OP here.

I do see where you come from. My expat experience is a different kind of expat experience than, say, the people teaching English overseas for low pay, or working for NGOs. But what you may not realize is that your expat experience is just different, and not the standard expat experience either. I'd argue people who go through the Peace Corps/NGO experience aren't really expats but a different kind of working abroad existence because they live very closely with the local communities. I base this on the idea that "expats" are people who live and work overseas but whose existence remained removed from the local everyday context, which I think was historically the understanding of expats. I'm sure you reject this view but I'd be intrigued by your AMA, so go ahead and start one and I'll read it with interest. [/quote]

NP here.  OP, the title of your thread was misleading.  When I think of an expat, I think of someone who has left the States -- for good -- with all of the risk that entails to *settle* in another country/culture.  You are more like a military family in that you work for a company that has stationed you at different locations temporarily.

There's nothing wrong with that, but the title of your AMA thread was a bit misleading.[/quote]

You're talking about immigrants. Or migrants.

Expats have always only been people who moved abroad temporarily, often by their companies and on work assignments, and who remained closely aligned with their home country. They do not attempt to seek out permanent residency or citizenship in their host country.

Do we consider the Latin American immigrants in the US expats or immigrants? Given that we never think of them as expats but consider them people who are seeking a permanent life in the US, they are justly immigrants. So your definition of someone leaving the US for good to settle in another country/culture is not likely to a justifiable definition because that person is more correctly an immigrant, not an expat. [/quote]

Expat is short for expatriate.  The connotation of that word is one who has settled abroad, out of their country.  We don't usually consider military families stationed in Germany expats.  The connotation is that the person has settled elsewhere, not just temporarily moved for a job wherein the job pays for housing, etc.

A person can be an immigrant and an expatriate.  They are not mutually exclusive terms.  Also, there are Americans who settle abroad and don't renounce their U.S. citizenship or apply for citizenship in the new country, but they are still settled there for the long haul.  An example would be people who retire to Costa Rica or Mexico, etc.  Or even people who marry a Brit and move there.

I'm just saying her title is misleading.  I consider her experience to be more akin to a military spouse, albeit with better pay/higher standard of living.   
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