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English is a funny language, the words chosen mean different things in each country's way of speaking. I'll try to describe based on my own experience: A tourist is a person who shows up, stays at a hotel, frequently via the air-port or cruise ship. They don't really embrace the local culture aside from sight-seeing tourist type activities. A Digital Nomad (DN) is almost like a tourist who lives in a country on a tourist visa - they don't open bank accounts, get national identity cards etc. They might rent an AirBNB and "live" in a country for a month or three at a time. It's not a vacation, it's a work/life 'hack', so they're in a foreign country but working (usually) in their host country. They are working in their host country living in another country. Expat (Expatriate) is a "tax status", it refers to the money transfer .. somebody who is working abroad BUT is .. in their life-planning horizon expecting to return to their home, - they are like an indefinite tourist, they live & work in a host country, so not on vacation (has a job, place to live, permission to stay & work) .. but it's not actually indefinite. The host country doesn't expect them to stay forever and might even require them to leave periodically. An expat is I think always working or earning income in the host country, but ultimately sending the money back home country. An immigrant is somebody who has left a place, and is going to stay at the new country indefinitely, they do not make any plans to return home (except to visit family), and perhaps they might want to bring their family to the new country. Their work status is irrelevant, they may not even have permission to work. An immigrant should have long term permission to stay in a country or they are considered a refugee, and may be expected leave, which is why being a refugee sucks so much. (I used to say I was an intellectual refugee from the US, but now that I understand how fucked life is for actual refugees I don't make that joke anymore) Immigrants by my definition, the new place is their home, refugees are 'forced immigrants' from circumstances. Immigrants want to stay embrace the culture, social behaviors, blabla whereas an Expat is probably going to maintain more social identity & long term concern over how things are going "back home", also maintaining some identity or property, whereas an immigrant frequently would (at least in my mind) sell property, move assets to the new country/currency. Refugees on the other hand, they are staying in a country because it's unsafe to return. I started as a DN, and now on the expat => immigrant spectrum. |