Size of expat community?

[steveinbsas]

I think the confusion is that most people associate the word "expat" with an "Ernest Hemingway, hanging out in local bars, James Bond, perhaps on the run from the law" type of vibe, where as the word "immigrant" has a "working in the fields, cleaning houses, menial labor, scraping to get by" vibe.

In reality everyone who is an expat is also an immigrant. But each word has a different connotation. If I tell someone I am an expat it sounds a lot cooler than saying I'm an immigrant.

In the first place, James Bond was never on the run. (He had a license to kill.)

Two: I never hang out in bars. In fact, there are none where I live. (No, it isn't Utah.)

I consider myself a "dyed in the wool" and "down to the bone" expat in Argentina.

All cliches aside, if all goes according to plan I will soon become a citizen of Argentina.

And won't care about labels in English.

I really don't care about them now.

Almost everyone in the village knows I'm from the USA and they obviously are very pleased that I chose to live here...with them.

What else could possibly matter?

 

[PhilinBSAS]

I met an old chap in his eighties who came to Argentina as a refrigeration engineer in 1930's married an Argentine lady has lived here ever since and now has Grandchildren; never persevered with speaking spanish and still projected a somewhat detached outlook towards The Argentine. I didnt enquire whether he had felt forced to give up his British passport during the dictatorship but his perspective was as English as mine, he tries to get back to see his family in North London and still follows Spurs. He said there were others like him in Hurlingham etc and I've heard Argentine friends say similar.

That's one definition of an ex-pat!

 

[Canick]

Most people who post here are really just tourists, here for only a few months..

when i first joined BAEXPATS, i did a survey over a week of people on here. the group size was about 70. that was about 2 years ago.
most people are NOT traveling tourists here for a few months:

-45% were Americans, 20% were British, 11% were Canadian, 5% were Irish.
the rest were represented by Austria, Belgium, Germany, India, Singapore, Russian and Puerto Rico.
-68% male, 32% female
-Average age: 38 years old
-Average time in Argentina: 2 years and 3 months (27 months)

 

[toongeorges]

Indec´s website shows the censo, and it says that almost 2 million people were not born in Argentina and were living in this country last year, instead of 1, 5 million that lived here in 2001.

Does it also say where people are from? I guess most "expats" would be from another country in Latin America, like Bolivia or Peru.

 

[Davidglen77]

Does it also say where people are from? I guess most "expats" would be from another country in Latin America, like Bolivia or Peru.

The majority of immigrants in Argentina are from Paraguay, followed by Perú and then Bolivia. The largest group of non-latin american immigrants here are from mainland china. I am talking about people who live here permanently and were born in another country. Not to be confused with the descendants of today's native born Argentines which are largely of Italian and Spanish descent, followed in much smaller numbers by German, French, Ukranian, Polish, Armenian, and Swiss.......

 

[willwright]

when i first joined BAEXPATS, i did a survey over a week of people on here. the group size was about 70. that was about 2 years ago.
most people are NOT traveling tourists here for a few months:

-45% were Americans, 20% were British, 11% were Canadian, 5% were Irish.
the rest were represented by Austria, Belgium, Germany, India, Singapore, Russian and Puerto Rico.
-68% male, 32% female
-Average age: 38 years old
-Average time in Argentina: 2 years and 3 months (27 months)

I'll stick to my earlier statement that most people here are really tourists on an extended vacations not really meeting the definition of expat. I wouldn't trust any survey done on this site as its for the most part anonymous and you really don't know if the information from anybody is real or not. I think I can say without any serious threat of contradiction that the number of people you can count as expat or otherwise has certainly declined and will likely continue to decline as long as inflation remains high and other markers for quality of life are steadily deteriorating. This is the only logical conclusion you can draw given the current situation.

 

[steveinbsas]

when i first joined BAEXPATS, i did a survey over a week of people on here. the group size was about 70. that was about 2 years ago.
most people are NOT traveling tourists here for a few months:

-45% were Americans, 20% were British, 11% were Canadian, 5% were Irish.
the rest were represented by Austria, Belgium, Germany, India, Singapore, Russian and Puerto Rico.
-68% male, 32% female
-Average age: 38 years old
-Average time in Argentina: 2 years and 3 months (27 months)

When you did your survey the number of active members on this site was probably closer to 1000 and there have been about ten times more who have ever registered.

That means that your survey was based upon responses from less than ten percent of active members and less than one percent of the total who have ever registered.

 

[afield]

When you did your survey the number of active members on this site was probably closer to 1000 and there have been about ten times more who have ever registered.

That means that your survey was based upon responses from less than ten percent of active members and less than one percent of the total who have ever registered.

Do we have the number of members of BA Expats when the survey was made and the number now? Perhaps what we are really interested is in non-Latin American expats, most of which would use English as their first language or language for communicating. The number of members here would be a good minimum number that we could multiply by 2 or 3 to take into account family.

 

[Gringoboy]

By all these definitions, I am therefore an immicrat.

 

[solerboy]

In the first place, James Bond was never on the run. (He had a license to kill.)

Excuse me for being pedantic.

In License to Kill Bonds licence was revoked and he was working as a rogue agent, he was also on the run in Qunatum of Solace, the most recent film.