NGL, not asking for a friend. Given the current trends in US politics, it seems prudent to at least look into it.
Most of the online content on the topic seems to be by immigration attorneys hustling ultra rich people. I’m not ultra rich. I have a job in tech, could work remotely, also have enough assets to not desperately need money if the cost of living were low enough.
I am a native English speaker, fluent enough in Spanish to survive in a Spanish speaking country. I am old, male, cis, hetero, basically asexual at this point. I am outgoing, comfortable among strangers.
What’s good and bad about where you live? Would it be OK for a outsider, newcomer?
Ive usually seen “Expat” defined as someone working in another country, but explicitly with the intent to be there temporarily and leave once their time at that job ends, rather than moving there with an intent to stay and join that society. Which, granted, doesnt seem to be what OP is actually talking about in this case.
It’s short for “expatriate.” I’m not saying it isn’t used in the way you described, but that’s not the original meaning.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/expatriate
Yea, I always thought an “expat” was someone who was temporarily sent to another country to work for their company there.
Americans don’t want to be grouped in with “dirty non-white immigrants” so they consider themselves expats even if they intend the move abroad permanently.
Thats just the expats changing the narrative when people started calling them out on it.
That’s what it means but some people use it wrong and some people complain about it being used wrong, wrongly