What is an expatriate ??

Laurent,

From a personal perspective:

Expats are very peculiar species. A gathering of so many of them is a rare event indeed. They share among themselves because talking about their experience at home doesn't interest that much people. Reasons to become an expat are numerous though. Experience changes them, preventing them to revert to their previous state. They are not what they used to be anymore and still they feel like fishes out of water where they live. Experience comes at a cost. But they know that is for their own achievement and ready to pay the price.

Still expat-blog is an unique opportunity to share wonders and doubts and I love it for that !!!

P.S. Someone mentions pics, I've never seen any, is it normal ??

You'll find very good answers to your questions here: Are you an expat?

Yes indeed but I think Loloeig was talking more from a community point of view, not the sole definition of an expat... Being from so different backgrounds, how do they interact with one another? What do they have in common apart from leaving their country and family behind? This is the very essence of expat-blog by the way...

Yes that is right Tom Cang. I talked more about feelings, shared values, and so on ...
Not just the definition of a dictionary or an administration...

ang expat ay umalis sa sariling bansa para mag hanap ng mas mabuting kabuhayan , like pilipino looking for greener pasteur, sana mga filipino makausap ko, sabik na tayo sa pagkain pinoy at sariling wika di ba?

Sorry but I didn't get what you say pearl, can you say it again in english?

There is a Yahoo forum mainly geared towards expats however they named it Buenos Aires Newcomers. It has a huge list and people, me included, post there on a daily basis. I think that the name keeps is from being exclusive and thus you get a lot of people who are just looking to share info but might not identify themselves as expats.

Posts can include local businesses telling others about their services, and people who just need information from people who have been through it already, and sometimes it's just a great place to gripe about the struggles of living in a foreign country.

I remember the Englishman who said 'I shall never be an 'ex-patriot'. I'll always love England!'
'Ex-patriate, you idiot', we told him..

..and another one, when asked if there were lots of foreigners living on his street (here in Mojácar) looked vaguely shocked and said - 'Oh, no, they're all English!'

lenox wrote:

..and another one, when asked if there were lots of foreigners living on his street (here in Mojácar) looked vaguely shocked and said - 'Oh, no, they're all English!'

!

Well I think the best definition is on wikipedia: definition expatriate

What do you think about it?

Good resumé on Wikipedia.
We have 'When-we's' here, the expression strictly limited to ex-Africa hands for some reason. ('When we were blah blah... pink gin anyone?').
They were probably much nearer to the idea of living a full life in another country (which... later went kerphooey) than those of us who bee-lined for Spain. It is sad that their way of life is effectively finished. (Or maybe not. Discuss).
They (I generalise here) have more trouble dealing with Johnny Native as their old way of life can not be immitated in a modern European country like Spain (even in the boonie bits).
An English ex-Africa hand (neighbour of ours) decided after a few years of talking to his maid in schoolboy French to give her a Christmas present. A French/English dictionary. It never occured to him to learn any Spanish. Or that she would never learn English from such a book. Or to ask if she could read (she can't). Or, come to think of it, to see if she could speak French (non).
In French we are 'les rosbif' - cor, wot I'd give for a roast beef sandwich with Colmans mustard (takes bite of bocadillo de jamón and ruminates contentedly). Here in our community, you can buy English imported food, beers (!), even lavatory paper. Yes, British lavatory paper.
I remember, when we were young, we used to dream of good British lavatory paper...