An expatriate is a person who is temporarily or permanently living in a country other than his or her own for various reasons.The word expatriate, as such, is the participle of the verb expatriate, which means to make someone leave their homeland or leave a person their homeland of their own free will or due to pressure. This word is formed with the suffix ex-, which means ‘outside’, and the voice of the country.
Thus, an expatriate can be a person who has simply decided by their own decision to move to another country for a determined or indefinite period of time, or someone who, due to pressure or threats in their country, must leave it to reside in another that hosts them, being that occasionally, he is even forced to renounce his nationality.
Qualified professionals abroad
In multinational companies, on the other hand, expatriate is a term widely used today to refer to those highly qualified professionals who are assigned by their companies, generally with offices in different countries, to work in delegations abroad.
In this sense, the professional expatriate differs from the immigrant in that he is not only a worker looking for a job to improve his economic and living conditions, but a professional with a high level of preparation and with a determined employment situation. In addition, professional expatriates usually have a series of benefits and advantages to attract them to move with their families to the new country and even invest and buy properties in it.
Despite everything, the expatriate usually faces a set of problems similar to those experienced by immigrants and exiles, such as the feeling of being uprooted, loneliness, difficulties in adapting and communicating, among other things.
