Are you someone who has left their country of birth to move and settle somewhere else, or who is thinking of doing so in the future? What led you to take that decision, or what is making you consider it? What have your experiences been until now, and what do you expect and hope for in the future?
I am under the impression that use that has been given to the word “expat” is the one of describing the same phenomenon as immigration but without the negative connotation that the word may carry, so I am with you in that.
Originally expats were people who went to another country for their employer, and didn’t plan on staying more than a few years. These jobs were usually transfers and the understanding was that the employee would go back or move somewhere else after a few years.
Nowadays it’s definitely used by white people to avoid the “stigma” of being migrants. They might also think about going back to their home country in some undisclosed time in the future but, who doesn’t really.
For real. People call me an expat while I moved to Belgium unemployed, with no connections other than my gf, no realistic prospects and because of insane housing prices back home. I am a ‘fortune seeker’ the media writes about often. But since I’m white, people throw in the expat comment from time to time. I’m not an expat, I didn’t know what I was going to do when moving here. I’m an immigrant lol.