expatriation

/ɛkˌspeɪtriˈeɪʃən/

Other forms: expatriations

Expatriation is the process of leaving your country and living in a new one, or the act of forcing a person to do this. If you decide to pack up your things and move to the remote island nation of Kiribati, that's expatriation.

When a fairy tale king banishes a princess from the kingdom, it's one kind of expatriation—you could also call it "exile" or "deportation." Then there's the expatriation that happens when someone chooses to move from one country to another. A U.S. citizen might attend college in Canada, then stay and become a Canadian citizen afterward, for example. Expatriation comes from the French expatrier, "banish," from ex-, "out of," and the Latin patria, "native land."

Definitions of expatriation

1. noun

   the act of expelling a person from their native land
   “the expatriation of wealthy farmers”

   synonyms: deportation, exile, transportation

   examples:

   Babylonian Captivity

   the deportation of the Jews to Babylonia by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC

   type of:

   banishment, proscription

   rejection by means of an act of banishing or proscribing someone
2. noun

   migration from a place (especially migration from your native country in order to settle in another)
   synonyms: emigration, out-migration

   type of:

   migration

   the movement of persons from one country or locality to another