Expatriates / Expats / X-pat

An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently resident in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence. The word comes from the Latin ex (out of) and patria (country, fatherland), and is sometimes misspelled (either unintentionally or intentionally) as ex-patriot or short x-pat, because of its pronunciation.

The term is often used in the context of Westerners living in non-Western countries, although it is also used to describe Westerners living in other Western countries, such as Australians living in the United Kingdom, or Britons living in Spain. Since more companies are doing business other than there home base country the expatriate communities have been growing all around the world. This growing community needs the same services they are used to when in their own home country and thus Expatriate Counseling was born.

Expatriate can just as well be used to describe any person living in a country other than where they hold citizenship, but is generally not used for government officials stationed in a foreign country.

Some abbreviations are: Expat, Expats, Ex-pats, Expatriate, Xpat or X-patriate.