Expatriate
individual temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of their citizenship
An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country.
The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker or artist from a wealthy country. It may also refer to retirees and other individuals who have chosen to live outside their native country. Students are usually not referred to as expats.
The International Organization for Migration of the United Nations defines the term as "a person who voluntarily renounces his or her nationality". Historically, it has also been used to refer to exiles.
The UAE is the country with the highest percentage of expatriates in the world after the Vatican City, with expatriates in the United Arab Emirates representing about 88% of the population.
Etymology
The word expatriate comes from the Latin words ex 'out of' and patria, from terra patria, 'native country, fatherland'.
Semantics
Dictionary definitions for the current meaning of the word include:
Expatriate:
"A person who lives outside their native country" (Oxford), or
"a person who lives in a foreign country" (Webster's).
These definitions contrast with those of other words with similar meanings, such as:
Migrant:
"A person who moves from one place to another in order to find work or better living conditions" (Oxford), or
"one that migrates: such as a person who moves regularly in order to find work especially in harvesting crops" (Webster's);
or
Immigrant
"A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country" (Oxford), or
"one that immigrates: such as a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence" (Webster's).
“Expatriate” enters the record as individual temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of their citizenship. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Expatriate, individual and temporarily can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Expatriate” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Expatriate, individual and temporarily provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q476713. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Expatriate primary sources, Expatriate archive and Expatriate research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Expatriate” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.