At Home Abroad: Expat Expressions
Is there such a thing as an Expatriate or Expat in 2014? Or are these words lost to the 20th century?
Why are we examining these questions? Because a growing number of people are now living or planning to live abroad, and we’re gathering their modern-day expat stories for an upcoming anthology titled At Home Abroad: Expat Expressions.
We have collected stories from people around the world who have left their countries of birth for various reasons and have captivating stories to tell.
These stories make us consider: Is the definition of expat tied to the amount of time spent away from one’s home? What constitutes home? If all that is left of home is packed in a storage unit and your address is a postal box for gathering mail, are you an expat? Do you need to be disgruntled to be an expat? Is a perpetual traveler an expat?
Many people who work abroad for multi-national corporations self-identify through their blogs and forums as expats.
Then there are people like us who have traveled for years, living in a series of countries, without a home base.
Untethered freelance workers with a lust for travel and cultural experiences can be found just about anywhere on the planet.
Retirees represent a huge bloc of expats. They live in all corners of the world, and they are fascinating and courageous.
Try to buy a domain with the word expat in it. They are in use. Clearly, many of us view ourselves as expats.
While we have much in common, our circumstances are not identical. We feel that all of these groups fall under the category of expatriates or expats, but not everyone agrees with that definition. Some would reserve the word expat for early to mid-20th century travelers. Certainly, the word and the people it represents have a storied history.
Places like Paris and people like Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T. S. Eliot, Isadora Duncan, and Alan Seeger come to mind. At that time being an expat amounted to a movement.
It’s clear the word has diverse applications, including permanent travelers, people working in other countries, and those retiring abroad. See the definitions at the end of this post.
We don’t need to label the wide variety of lifestyles that involve living or traveling in another country — for our book we’re using the word “expat” to describe people who spend extended periods of time outside their home countries.
Having put the definition challenge behind us, we are excited and proud to say that in the last month or so we’ve been entrusted with amazing expat stories that will encompass the contemporary range of at-home-abroad experiences. They are inspiring, informative, challenging, and thought-provoking. These stories will help illuminate how expats relate to their world.
The adventuresome expat spirit is alive in the 21st century!
And it’s not too late. If you have an expat story, please contact us. Our deadline for submissions is November 1.
Wikipedia
An expatriate (sometimes shortened to expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of the person’s upbringing. The word comes from the Latin terms ex (“out of”) and patria (“country, fatherland”).
expatriate-noun. someone who does not live in their own country
An expatriate (often abbreviated to ‘expat’ or sometimes ‘ex-pat’) is a person ‘temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person’s upbringing or legal residence’. In other words, somebody who isn’t from ‘around here’.
expatriate-noun. a person who lives in a foreign country