From Expat to Immigrant

My personal shift in Italy and what the semantics behind these words really has to do with anything.

I used to consider myself an expat. Now I’d consider myself an immigrant.

While I know the term “expat” has a lot of controversy around it, I personally think the definition applies well to people moving to a country for a year or two and who have no intention of putting down roots.

An immigrant is a person who is planning to stay in said country. They’re aiming for permanent residency, ideally citizenship, and to call this new place home. An expat doesn’t care so much about that - they’re there for work, love, or something in between and have no intention of understanding the bureaucratic, political, or economic systems beyond the need for a temporary visa.

I’ve considered myself an expat when I worked abroad in Ecuador, Panama, South Korea, and Vietnam. I considered myself a digital nomad when I worked remotely from other parts of SE Asia and the Balkans. I’ve been simply a tourist more times than I can count.

But now, I’m an immigrant.

Bandido & me, this past weekend

We’re actively aiming to stay in Italy. We’re on the path to permanent residency and have agreed we’ll stay until we can apply for citizenship. We bought an apartment, have taken out a mortgage, and are trying to understand the country beyond base knowledge.

The language class I’m in isn’t one that simply teaches grammar; it teaches the language through the lens of culture. Many days we talk about government programs, the school system, and how recycling works here instead of opening a textbook.

I’ve always had a big interest in culture. It’s my biggest driver when prioritizing slow travel and taking the chance to live somewhere vs. just traveling there. This shift though has gone deeper.

There are things I never thought about in other countries I’ve lived in that I now want (or need) to know about in Italy. How's the political system really set up? What rights do I have as an immigrant? Things like tax cuts and healthcare and all the other boring stuff about being an adult I’ve actively been trying to avoid.

The problem with the word “expat” isn’t so much in the word itself; it’s how people use it. It’s the idea that people who are on my exact same path cling to it rather than admit that they’re an immigrant. There’s nothing wrong with being an immigrant and if you’re one who cringes a little bit at the idea of becoming one yourself, well, you really shouldn’t be moving abroad in the first place.

This lifestyle shift marks a big change in my life but one I’m eager to embrace.

Do I still crave the flexibility of previous years when we changed jobs and countries as often as we please? Of course. Some days I wake up yearning to go rogue. But, more often than not, I’m excited to feel for the first time as an adult what it means to put down some roots and settle in.

So, cheers to us, with this lifestyle switch that’ll hopefully bring us plenty of excitement, just in a different way than we’ve been used to.