An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of their citizenship. The word comes from the Latin terms ex ("out of") and patria ("country, fatherland"). In common usage, the term is often used in the context of professionals or skilled workers sent abroad by their companies.
Controversy sometimes arises over why some people are called expatriates while others are termed immigrants.
Background
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.
The term "expatriate" in some countries also has a legal context used for tax purposes, meaning someone who does not have tax residence in the country they are living. An expatriate living in a country can receive a favourable tax treatment â€" they are still subject to taxation, but not in the same way as tax residents. For example, in Japan for the first five years of residency one is a non-permanent resident for tax purposes, and thus subject only to tax on Japan-source income, not worldwide income (such as bank interest or investment gains in one's home country). Rules and the number of years can vary per tax jurisdiction, but 5 years is the most commonly used maximum period.
"Expatriation" may sometimes be used to 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.
Trends in expatriation
During the latter half of the 20th century, expatriation was dominated by professionals sent by their employers to foreign subsidiaries or headquarters. Starting at the end of the 20th century globalization created a global market for skilled professionals and leveled the income of skilled professionals relative to cost of living while the income differences of the unskilled remained large. The cost of intercontinental travel had become sufficiently low such that larger employers not finding the skill in a local market could effectively turn to recruitment on a global scale.
This has 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. Private motivation is becoming more relevant than company assignments. Families might often stay behind when work opportunities amount to months instead of years. The cultural impact of this trend is more significant. Traditional corporate expatriates did not integrate and commonly only associated with the elite of the country they were living in. Modern expatriates form a global middle class with shared work experiences in a multi-national corporation and working and living the global financial and economical centers. Integration is incomplete but strong cultural influences are transmitted. Middle-class expatriates contain many re-migrants from emigration movements one or two generations earlier.
Where the initiative for expatriation does not come from employers but originates from individuals, management researchers describe this as self-initiated expatriation (SIE). There are also expatriate executives that are appointed by local companies in distant countries rather than being posted there by foreign multinational corporations. Some Asian companies, for example, have recently hired a number of Western managers. These executives can also be viewed as self-initiated expatriates.
The continuing shift in expatriates has often been difficult to measure and available figures often include economic migrants. According to UN statistics, more than 232 million people, that is 3.2% of the world population, live outside of their home country in 2013.
In terms of influx of expatriates, among the most popular expatriate destinations are for several years Germany, Belgium, France, Spain and Russia in Europe, Canada and the USA in North America, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Hong Kong in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, as well as South Africa which is the most popular expat destination in Africa and among the top five countries for raising children.
In Dubai the population is predominantly composed of foreign passport holders, majorly migrants from countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines and expatriates from the Western world, with only 20% of the population made up of citizens. Singapore as well has a large number of expatriates and almost 40% of the inhabitants of this metropolitan city are foreign-born workers, professionals or students.
Expatriates generally qualify for and enjoy access to a wide range of financial advantages, ranging from a wide variety of financial products, investing offshore or tax benefits either in their home country or the place of residence.
'Expat' as a racial category
By and large the term expat is applied to Caucasian migrants/immigrants with a Western point of origin. Persons of color are largely denied access to the label, regardless of their status or wealth "you should expect that any person going to work outside of his or her country for a period of time would be an expat, regardless of his skin colour or country. But that is not the case in reality; expat is a term reserved exclusively for western white people going to work abroad"
Europeans living abroad
In terms of outbound expatriation, in 2009 the United Kingdom had the most expatriates among developed OECD countries with more than three million British living abroad, followed by Germany and Italy. On an annual basis, emigration from Britain has stood at about 400,000 per year for the past 10 years. Expatriates from the UK have the advantage of being able to convert their existing pension scheme into a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS), often providing tax advantages in other countries with lower tax rates.
The British Mental Health Act 1983 rules that persons resident abroad do not qualify as "nearest relative" of a person who is ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.
U.S. citizens living abroad
During the Vietnam War, about 100,000 American men went abroad to avoid the draft, 90% of them going to Canada. In May 2013, the State Department estimated that there are currently 7.6 million Americans living outside the United States. The US is the only industrialized country to tax citizens on income earned while living abroad, as evident in the listing under International taxation, even when those citizens are taxed by their countries of residence, though US citizens are allowed to exclude their first $97,600 (2013) of their earned income, but not of pensions and other sources of income. Additionally, a new 2010 US law known as FATCA requires financial institutions to report information on US expatriates who have over $50,000 during the year. US expatriates must file an FBAR with the Treasury by June and note on their Form1040 to the IRS to report any foreign bank accounts if the aggregate value of all foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year to be reported, with heavy fines for noncompliance. American expatriates have also frequently been denied service at banks and other institutions in their countries of residence, as the US government requires other nations to abide by its banking and financial laws when dealing with its citizens. As a result, hundreds of US expatriates renounce their US citizenship every year.
Human resource management of expatriate employees
The need to develop global leadership and the growth of new business ventures abroad has prompted a massive rise in global mobility. The salary of internationally assigned personnel often consists of standard salary and monetary benefits such as cost of living and/or hardship allowances (COLA) supported by non-monetary incentives such as health care, education expenses, and housing. Some companies will completely cover the cost of expatriate children's education, even at relatively expensive international schools, while other, usually smaller companies, encourage families to find local schooling options. There are three approaches used by organizations to decide what benefits to give their expat. These approaches are destination based, balance sheet approach, or the international headquarters approach.
Given that one of the primary reasons for early repatriation is attributed to a spouse or other family member's inability to adjust, international corporations often have a company-wide policy and coaching system that includes spouses at an earlier stage in the decision-making process. Not many companies provide any compensation for loss of income of expatriate spouses, although they often do provide other benefits and assistance. The level of support differs, ranging from offering a job-hunting course for spouses at the new location to full service partner support structures, run by volunteering spouses supported by the organization.
There are several advantages and disadvantages of using expatriate employees to staff international company subsidiaries. Advantages include, permitting closer control and coordination of international subsidiaries and providing a broader global perspective. Disadvantages include high transfer costs, the possibility of encountering local government restrictions, and possibly creating a problem of adaptability to foreign environments.
HR departments often use services of relocation companies, who assist expats in moving abroad as well as managing expats' related administrative issues such as: assignment management, financial management and reporting to name a few.
Expatriate Archive Centre
The Expatriate Archive Centre in The Hague (Netherlands) has a unique collection of letters, diaries, photographs and films documenting the social history of expatriate life. It collects journals, letters, diaries and photographs â€" in fact, almost any document from the past detailing the lives and experiences of people working and living away from their home country.
The Expatriate Archive’s purpose is to collect, preserve, promote, and make available to the public and researchers a collection of primary source materials documenting the social history of expatriate life. It aims to give a voice to the memories and experiences of expatriates of all nationalities from all over the world, and to establish a research resource for historians worldwide.
Expat Explorer survey (2012)
Expat Explorer is the global survey of expats, undertaken by HSBC and conducted by third party research company YouGov where 5,339 expats were questioned through an online survey.
The report covers three key aspects of expatriate life:
1. Expat Economics
Expat Economics focuses on how the economic situation differs for expats from country to country. Expat Economics Overall (includes: Wealth Hotspot, Income, Disposable Income, and Luxuries)