For years, I’ve called myself an expat.

I never really questioned it. It was just the word people used — especially Brits living abroad. Retired in Spain? Expat. Working overseas? Expat. No big deal.

But over time, and especially after Brexit, people started pointing something out to me that I couldn’t ignore.

“You’re not an expat. You’re an immigrant.”

At first, I brushed it off. The word immigrant felt heavy. Political. Loaded.
Expat felt lighter. Temporary. Almost… nicer.

But then I started looking into it properly.

Why is it that white, Western people living abroad are usually called expats, while people moving in the opposite direction are called immigrants? A Polish worker in the UK is an immigrant. A Nigerian family in London is immigrant. A Jamaican nurse is an immigrant.

But a Brit in Spain? Expat.

Same action. Different label.

And once you notice that, it’s hard to unsee.

Brexit made it even clearer. Suddenly British people living abroad were being talked about in ways that will sound very familiar to anyone who’s followed migration debates in the UK: not integrating, not learning the language, wanting the benefits without the responsibilities.

At the same time, my own experience in Spain changed how I saw things.

Registering on the padrón. Applying for residencia. Fingerprints at the police station. Sorting healthcare. Dealing with visas, renewals, income requirements. Sitting in gestorías with folders full of documents, hoping I’d brought the right piece of paper.

That doesn’t feel like some special category of “expat life”.

That feels like immigration.

In Spain, I’m an extranjero — a foreigner. No hierarchy. No special word. Just someone who moved from another country to live here.

And that’s when I realised something uncomfortable: I liked the word expat because it made me feel separate from “immigrants”.

I’ve stopped using it now.

Not because the word is evil. Not because people corrected me online. But because being honest about what I’m doing — moving country, registering, paying into the system, building a life — matters.

I’m an immigrant.

And that’s not an insult. It’s just accurate.

If you’ve lived abroad, I’d love to know: what do you call yourself?

Thanks for reading,
Mark (Tapas Guy)

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