tomar

Surely the definition of an ex pat is different to someone who has emigrated? An expat usually moves for work on a contract often for a specific length of time with possibility of extending it, rather than someone who theoretically emmigrates for life on a permanent visa!!? So to be honest the numbers who return to their home land after emigrating bear little relation to ex pats returning, you only have to look at the countries that were included in the survey to see not many people would emigrate there.
As an ex expat I feel very different about how I have settled in OZ as against how I viewed my temporary life as an expat, as always knew it was always only temporary. The main reason we didn't return to UK was that we had got used to a different way of life and Australia suited us better. To be honest I think it's fairly 50 50 , among people we know, who returned to UK and who didn't and most seem happy with their decision, so I do question the results, but of course intention and reality aren't always the same.

Pollyana

In that case though, when is an expat no longer an expat. Many of us plan to go home at some point, even if its years in the future - what does that make us?!

eddie007

I always understood an expatriate to be voluntarily away from their 'home country' rather than involuntarily (Exile)...

so an expat is some one who is away from 'home' ... they CAN return if they want to... which is great... we can be all fuzzy and inclusive and hug one another... we are ALL expats... if we aren't living at home, whether we choose to stay til we are dead or not.

Pollyana

Thats the way I see it personally, those living here may be emigrants, but we are also expats. Those visiting, on WHVs or whatever are also expats, but not emigrants.

tomar

Unsettled!!? Or the sort of people who make the most of wherever they are living, and live for the now rather than the what may be.
We all deserve a pat on the back.
I'm a bit worried as I have never lived any where longer than 11 years even as a child, and been here for 10 1/2 years now. Watch this space, could be another adventure looming in my dotage!

eddie007

How long were you a child for?

BadgeIsBack

I see migration as a wholely life thing - you want to go and live in another country and do it. You see it as moreorless permanent - a choice even, if you decided to set up shop and start a family (like we did) and treat the country as a base.

However with more than one passport or residency visa, you have the choice to unwind it all - or even have an international life.

I see expats as technically everyone, but more of a temporary thing - work or opportunity related - even professional.

Still an expat, if the plan was always to go home, is to go home, and the thought that the expat location is not really a long term base, and can never be. Polly - I see you an as an expat, you started off on more solid ground as a wife of an Australian, with all the visas rights it entails, but now circumstance means you are very much living as an expat.

Now you are introducing a new category of exile which doesn't really effect many of us - unless we are saying that we might be in exile as we were sort of forced by circumstance to be an expat..or can't afford to move, or have ties...I don't think many are truly in exile!

I think that it's all in the mind, and not just down to visa. You may not be on a temp visa, but I would say you are an expat. Someone could be on a temp visa (TR) but want to stay and convert themselves into a migrant at some point. A PR visa holder also can decide whether they see themselves as a migrant or a resident for 5 years..the Australian govt technically gives us no choice as they give 'skilled migrants' a 5 year PR visa which must be renewed. But it is a technicality.

it's all in the mind and in the motive for me! Obviously you can apply definitions as per the dictionary if they exist. Technically migration is an 'outflow' I suppose. I see it more as permanent.

Mike at Taree

Clearly, historically, whilst migrants possibly intend to go back to their country of birth, they don't actually do so, otherwise the population of Australia would only be about five million, four million of which would be expats

tomar

Probably a child for as long as most people, sorry if my post wasn't clear. Just making a light hearted post about having moved around all of my life as I was an army brat, and moved at least every 2 years and continued to move often since, and the longest I have lived anywhere is only 11 years, so hope my time isn't up here in OZ soon as I feel quite settled!!

eddie007

chris955

Well a good proportion do in fact go back but predictably most dont.

Jon77

Just quickly scanning through this thread.

I never understand why some people get so defensive about their decision to stay or go back to the UK and why those who makes these decisions feel the need to justify them in the way that they do. It is almost like the people who have decided to go back for example feel the need for everyone else here to feel the same way as they di and vice versa.

The out come of this survey basically says what we all know - for some people it will work, for some it won't, there we could have saved on so many pages.

cresta57

He's happy, that's all.

I worked with a bloke like that in the U.K. He was financially secure, owned several houses & could easily live on the rent from just 4 of them. He was 67 when we came out here & refused to retire. He died on a roof in the middle of winter, never got to enjoy a penny or a day of retirement though.

My plan is to enjoy what I earn now while I'm young enough to do so. My brother in law is 35 & will be dead by next year, malignant brain tumour. Life is sometimes cut so drastically short.