Expatriate

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This article is about foreign human residency. For the Australian Indie Rock band, see Expatriate.

An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence. The word comes from the Latin ex (out of) and patria (country, fatherland), and is sometimes misspelled (either unintentionally or intentionally) as ex-patriot or short ex-pat (because of its pronunciation).

Background

The term is often used in the context of Westerners living in non-Western countries, although it is also used to describe Westerners living in other Western countries, such as Americans living in the United Kingdom, or Britons living in Spain. It may also reasonably refer to Japanese living, for example, in New York City. The key determinant would seem to be cultural/socioeconomic and causation.

Expatriate can just as well be used to describe any person living in a country other than where they hold citizenship, but is generally not used for government officials stationed in a foreign country.

During the 19th century and early 20th century, tens of millions of Europeans flocked to the United States in search of better living conditions, work, and freedom from oppression and political turmoil. Their expectations were often high, sometimes inflated by myths as incredible as the streets being paved with gold. These expatriates usually stayed for the rest of their lives and, due to the liberal immigration laws of the time, became citizens. The practice of granting property rights to European immigrants in the territories tempted many European expatriates of this time to stay and raise American families.

Conversely, during the same time period, a much smaller group of Americans, numbering perhaps in the thousands, were drawn to Europe—especially to Munich and Paris—to study the art of painting. Henry James was a famous expatriate American writer from the 1870s, who adopted England as his home.

A nickname in the UK for former expatriates who have returned to Britain is the "When I"s, or "When we"s, as they are accused of starting conversations by saying "When I was in Rhodesia" or "When we were in Singapore".

Similarly, they are sometimes even viewed by their fellow citizens as foreigners, particularly their children, whose accents may seem strange to their classmates. The children of expatriates are often considered Third Culture Kids (or TCKs) and later in life consider themselves "Adult Third Culture Kids" (or ATCKs). These children often hold passports from multiple countries, speak several different languages, and have a hard time defining where "home" is.

While Europeans or North Americans living in the Middle East and Asia may marry local people and have children, most see no advantage in adopting citizenship of their host countries, usually because they consider their stay only temporary, or because of dual nationality restrictions. However, they may adopt permanent resident status.

In countries like Saudi Arabia, many expatriates are required to live in segregated compounds rather than integrate with the local population. As a result a lively community of social blogs has evolved that links the different segregated communities. In Dubai the population is predominantly expatriates, from countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines with only 3% of the population made up of Western expatriates.[1]

Famous expatriates

The so-called "expatriots," a term referring to United States American literary notables who lived in Paris from the period which saw the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression, included people such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein. African-American expatriation to Paris also boomed after World War I, beginning with black American veterans who preferred the subtler racism of Paris to the oppressive racism and segregation in parts of the United States.

In the 1920s African-American writers, artists, and musicians arrived in Paris and popularized jazz in Parisian nightclubs, a time when Montmartre was known as "the Harlem of Paris." Some notable African-American expatriates from the 1920s onward included Josephine Baker, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Miles Davis, and Charlie Parker.

Another famous group of expatriates was the so-called Beat Generation of American artists living in other countries during the 1950s and 1960s. This group included Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Harold Norse, Gregory Corso and Gary Snyder. Later generation expatriates also included 1950s jazz musicians such as Steve Lacy, 1960s rock musician Jim Morrison, and 1970s singer-songwriter Elliott Murphy.

Many American fashion designers have notably become expatriates in France and Italy to design for existing European design houses or to enhance their own collections. These fashion designers include Marisol Deluna, Tom Ford, Patrick Kelly, and Marc Jacobs

Trends in expatriation

During the later half of the 20th century expatriation was dominated by professionals sent by their employers to foreign subsidiaries or headquarters. Starting at the end of the 20th century Globalization created a global market for skilled professionals and leveled the income of skilled professionals relative to cost of living while the income differences of the unskilled remained large. Cost of intercontinental travel had become sufficiently low, such that an employers not finding the skill in a local market could effectively turn to recruitment on a global scale. This has created a different type of expatriate where Commuter and short-term assignments are becoming the norm, and are gradually replacing the traditional long term. Private motivation is becoming more relevant than company assignment. Families might often stay behind when work opportunities amount to months instead of years. The cultural impact of this trend is more significant. Traditional corporate expatriates did not integrate and commonly only associated with the elite of the country they were living in. Modern expatriates form a global middle class with shared work experiences in multi-national corporation and working and living the global financial and economical centers. Integration is incomplete but strong cultural influences are transmitted. Middle class expatriates contain many re-migrants from emigration movements one or two generations earlier.

Dealing with expatriates

In dealing with expatriates, an international company reckons the value of them and has experienced staff to deal with them. Furthermore, a company often has a company wide policy and coaching system and includes the spouses at an earlier stage in the decision making process by giving them an official say in this. Not many companies provide any compensation for loss of income of spouses. They often do provide benefits and assistance. The level of support differs, ranging from offering a job-hunting course for spouses at the new location to full service partner support structures, run by volunteering spouses supported by the organization. An example of an expatriate led project can be found in the Gracia Arts Project of Barcelona.

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