Expatriates

An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing, as an immigrant, in a country other than that of their citizenship. The word comes from the Latin terms ("out of") and ("country, fatherland").

In common usage, the term is often used in the context of professionals or skilled workers sent abroad by their companies.

Expatriation may also mean exile or denaturalization or renunciation of allegiance. The U.S. Expatriation Act of 1868 said in its preamble, 'the right of expatriation is a natural and inherent right of all people, indispensable to the enjoyment of the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' Early Nazi Germany deprived many opponents of their citizenship, such as Albert Einstein, Oskar Maria Graf, Willy Brandt and Thomas Mann, often expatriating entire families.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many Americans, numbering perhaps in the thousands, were drawn to European cultural centers, especially Munich and Paris. The author Henry James, for instance, adopted England as his home, while Ernest Hemingway lived in Paris.

Global markets at the end of the 20th century created a different type of expatriate where commuter and short-term assignments are becoming more common and often used by organizations to supplement traditional expatriation.

Where the initiative for expatriation does not come from employers but originates from individuals, management researchers describe this as self-initiated expatriation (SIE). There is also the different phenomenon of expatriate executives who are appointed by local companies in distant countries rather than being posted there by foreign multinational corporations. Some local companies in emerging markets, for example, have recently hired a number of Western managers.

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