---
title: "Difference between expat and immigrant"
date: 2024-07-13
canonical: https://solmaz.io/expat-immigrant-difference
license: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
---

Two persons move to foreign countries, different from where they were born. One is called an *expat*, the other an *immigrant*. What is the difference between the two?

There are a lot of takes online discussing the semantics, etymologies, conditions underlying the journey. I like spicy takes, and this specific take of mine also happens to draw a nice symmetric picture. So I took the time to blog about it. Not sure if I saw it somewhere else before.

### The take

If a person from a poor country moves to a rich country, they are called an *immigrant*. If a person from a rich country moves to another rich country, they are called an *expat*.

If you like symmetries like I do, you might notice a pattern: what do you call a person moving from a rich country to a poor country? What are the other elements of $\\{\text{rich country}, \text{poor country}\\}^2$ called?

IMO rich to poor is pretty clear: *colonizer*. Poor to poor is not as clear, maybe *nomad* or *drifter*?

People in rich countries who become digital nomads are sometimes relatively poor in their own country, and they go to poorer countries to have higher purchasing power. So I guess *nomad* makes sense?

Put in a table, it looks like this:

<table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" style="text-align: center; width: 100%;">
  <tr>
    <th colspan="2" rowspan="2"></th>
    <th colspan="2">Moving to:</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <th>Rich country</th>
    <th>Poor country</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <th rowspan="2">Moving from:</th>
    <th>Rich country</th>
    <td>Expat</td>
    <td>Colonizer</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <th>Poor country</th>
    <td>Immigrant</td>
    <td>Nomad</td>
  </tr>
</table>

<figure>

**Table 1:** The emigration matrix

</figure>

I even tried to make this into a picture with ChatGPT Dall-E, but the best it could come up with was:

![](/img/expat-immigrant-difference/img1.jpg)

I leave drawing this to someone with more spare time at their hands.

> Side note: Some consider acknowledging poverty to be politically incorrect. IMO it only serves to perpetuate it.