r/BeAmazed • u/MambaMentality24x2 • Jul 28 '26

Nature Good news: Costa Rica brought its forests back 🌱

Post image

Costa Rica became the first tropical country to successfully reverse deforestation. After losing much of its forest cover to farming and cattle ranching, the country changed course through conservation efforts, protected areas, and programmes that encouraged landowners to protect forests.

Today, forests cover around 60% of Costa Rica again, turning a story of environmental destruction into one of the world’s most inspiring conservation successes.

A reminder that when nature is given a chance, it can recover.

54.6k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

273 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

19

u/relationsdviceguy Jul 28 '26

I think immigrant is someone who plans on staying permanently.

An expat is someone who’s length of stay they don’t yet know.

So you could be a Filipino expat living in Spain or a Caucasian immigrant living in Thailand.

People really will get outraged at anything

23

u/LimpAfternoon6878 Jul 28 '26

That's completely made up. Being an immigrant does not require permanent residence and being an expat does not imply temporary stay. The guy above you has it right, expats is mostly used to describe immigrants from Eurocentric countries. Try googling Filipino expat and see how many results actually use those words. Every result I'm seeing is referencing white people moving to the Philippines.

9

u/Lost-In-The-Wilds Jul 28 '26

I just checked Miriam Webster.

IMMIGRANT: a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence.

EXPATRIATE (Noun): a person who lives in a foreign country.

Expatriate can also imply giving up your allegiance to your former country. Similar to Emigrant, all it signifies is leaving your old country. It says nothing about where you're staying now or for how long. Also, Ex-Pat is mainly a British thing to say, but it sounds cool so I'm sure 'Muricans will swipe it if they can.

3

u/BeBearAwareOK Jul 28 '26

Bring back emigrant imo.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '26

[deleted]

2

u/techdevjp Jul 29 '26

I’ll be damned if I’ve ever heard an American, Canadian, or European refer to themselves as an immigrant when leaving their home country to take up residence elsewhere.

I'm a Canadian who was an expat in Japan for many years, but now considers himself an immigrant. I didn't intend to stay permanently but now I do. The reality has changed, so the term has changed.

Also, there is no hyphen or space in expat. It is short for expatriate. You're right that expats tend to come from wealthier countries. Many move to less wealthy countries, but one can be an expat anywhere.

2

u/LimpAfternoon6878 Jul 29 '26

Hey, the more you know. Thanks. I have seen expat used pretty often in the US, especially in regards to places like Costa Rica and Colombia where a lot of Americans like to end up. The swiping has succeeded

2

u/LessInThought Jul 29 '26

No, it's ex pat. The dude formerly known as patrick.

8

u/Linenoise77 Jul 28 '26

Traveling internationally, as an English speaker, the way I have always referred to people\heard them referred to was:

Expat-Someone who has been someplace for a length of time and integrated somewhat, but has not dropped connections to their home, and doesn't intend to stay

New- Someone who is expected to be there for a length of time, but hasn't really integrated at all.

Lives- Someone who now views that place as their "home"

7

u/Vaiden_Kelsier Jul 29 '26

So let's start calling migrant workers then expats. That'd be logically sound then, correct?

0

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '26

[deleted]

1

u/tomahawk66mtb Jul 29 '26

I think you are right about the duality - I referred to myself as an immigrant to Sri Lanka as my family and I have moved here permanently (that's our plan) and are learning the language and integrating. But I was corrected by someone telling me I'm an expat because I'm only on a 10 year visa and Sri Lanka has no pathway to permanent residence or nationality except through marriage.

I'm also white, so maybe that's why the observer called me an expat 🤣