Today’s topic is about friendships that expatriates make abroad, and the common challenges faced by these friendships made on the road. What are they? Well, in my ten-plus years of moving in ex-pat spaces, the fears, anxieties, and grief are often summed up in the following points:
1️⃣ short-lived
2️⃣ superficial
3️⃣ easily forgotten post-departure.
There are friendship that last, but the aim of this episode is to discuss what we all feel but fail to put into words because it’s true that some expat immigrants to a country will not open up to other expats anymore because they don’t want to go through the process of getting close only to let go when it’s time for their new friend to leave.
When you go through the process often, as expats normally do, it can leave you feeling lonely and emotionally exhausted. So, what are our options? To find out more, listen to today’s episode to make sure that you make and foster friendships abroad that will fulfill you in the long term.
A word on terminology: “expat” vs. “immigrant” vs. “traveler”
Why are some people expats while others are immigrants? I just want to make it clear that I use the word “expat” in the truest sense of the word based on etymology. The word comes from the Latin “ex” which means “out” and “patria” which is Latin for “native country”. On the other hand, if we look at the word “immigrant” means anybody to has come to live in a country permanently.
“Im” is Latin for “into” and “migrate”, well, to migrate. Therefore, all immigrants are ex-pats, but not all ex-pats are immigrants. Any other meaning that we have ascribed to it as a society comes from our society’s own prejudice that the media encourages with their reporting. I’m not one of those. The words are used as appropriately as possible during this episode.
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