also called expatriate
Someone living outside their home country, usually implying a settled stay rather than constant travel.
Expat is a loose social label for someone living outside their home country, usually with a sense of a settled stay rather than endless travel. The uncomfortable truth is that it often means the same thing as immigrant, just applied to wealthier or Western movers; the word is about status and perception, not law. No border officer stamps you an expat; it is how people talk, not a legal box.
You move to Mexico City for a couple of years and call yourself an expat, while a person moving the other way for work is called an immigrant. The paperwork and rights can be identical, and the only real difference is the label people reach for.
The label affects how locals and media frame your status, but it is social language, not a legal category.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
These labels differ by how settled you are and why you moved.
A digital nomad works remotely while moving between places, a slowmad does the same but stays months at a time, and a perpetual traveller keeps moving specifically to avoid becoming resident anywhere; an expat lives abroad but settled, and an immigrant means to stay for good.
Flag theory and base-building are strategies for spreading your residence, banking and citizenship across countries, while a third culture kid and nomad family travel describe raising children in this life.
Flag state is the odd one out here, meaning the country a boat is registered in.
Base-building strategy · Flag state · Flag theory · Nomad couple / family travel · Perpetual traveller · Third culture kid
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