Re: How many expats do we have here?

I hear this..Apperently there are lots of English/British people in my area but except at Christmas when we go to a Native Englsih speakers Christmas party I never see or meet any of them..

(not that I really want to)

Re: How many expats do we have here?

I would define you as an Australian .
I would define ex pat as someone who works overseas but is British .
Those who retire overseas but still think of Britain as home are I supose expats as they are out of their country.

Re: How many expats do we have here?

Im fall into that catagory of being neither fish nor fowl.

Ive lived here 26 years so Im not considered English anymore but am not considered local either.

Re: How many expats do we have here?

Well, this thread went well ........

Re: How many expats do we have here?

Oh dear there is always one must be a whinging ex pom

Re: How many expats do we have here?

To my mind an ex pat is someone who leaves his/her country of origin and moves permanently to another country. Many people who work abroad I don´t class as ex pats, because usually they are on some kind of contract for ex amount of months or years and go back to their own countries when the contract/work is finished.

I always find it a little strange when people say they don´t mix, or don´t want to mix, with other ex pats from their own countries. People are people, whatever country they come from, some nice, some not nice, some downright objectionable. We are lucky here where we live, we have a very mixed community, many different nationalities and on the whole everyone gets along, apart from our English neighbours on one side who have managed to fall out with everyone around, but you find people like them everywhere you go.

This morning a new family are in the process of moving into a house just over the road, they are Chinese, Mr Clumsy is over there right now, helping them carry things in, the people in the house next to them (German) are taking care of the baby whilst the moving is going on and neighbours walking past are stopping to say hello to them and offering help if required.
The new Chinese neighbours apparently speak Spanish and English, they also appear to be a very pleasant family.

We are all mostly ex pats here no matter what our country of origin, apart from the Spanish neighbours that is, but we are lucky to live in such a nice area with nice people around us.

We used to have Spanish students staying with us when we lived in England, most are still in touch, which is so nice, but I always remember one of them saying to us, "I like to come to England to improve my English, but oh how I now want to go home and hear and speak Spanish". I imagine that is pretty much the same for any person spending quite some time in another country with a different language.

Re: How many expats do we have here?

Clumsy The idea of this was people's experiences of living abroad. Any problems they came upon the way. Not being an ex pat per say. Just to offer advice if needed. Perhaps is anybody thinking of doing exact same thing. To offer support. It's not really a thread to discuss if or not you are an ex pat

I am happy where I am and do not intend to go back to the UK but feel it would be nice to offer an idea of living abroad as for many it is a huge undertaking

Re: How many expats do we have here?

I understand what you mean Goldielocks, but reading other posts on here others have mentioned "what constitutes an ex pat, not wanting to mix with ex pat communities etc", so I was just giving my take on those comments.

Apart from that, these days there is a lot of help available for people moving here, at least to this part of Spain, I don´t know about other parts. There are many different groups and organisations where you can get help or advice. I agree it can be difficult at times, especially trying to find your way round the system here, which appears to change frequently.

Re: How many expats do we have here?

Hi Clumsy I made the mistake of doing much research on forums. It was a totally different experience for me. I find the system ok. It's just a bit different. I went off the ex pats sites because it turned into a battle ground. I felt half of them didn't even live in their said locations just wanted to stir.

Forums are the bain of a particularly good forum where I live. Offer totally wrong advice or out dated information.

What is it with ex pats. They live in a beautiful location and still whinge

Re: How many expats do we have here?

The definition of an expat is a person living outside his/her native country, so it doesn't seem to matter whether you are working or not, how long you have been there or where you consider home.