Who are Migrants?

A migrant is someone who moves from one place or country to another. An emigrant is someone who leaves his or her own country to settle in another, and an immigrant is someone who comes as a resident to a new country. In terms of the UK, emigrants are people who leave the UK to live elsewhere, and immigrants are people who come from other countries to live in the UK.

"Migrants may be defined by their legal status or ethnicity…. If we exclude short term visitors (tourists for example) the most important categories [for the UK] are labour migration, refugee migration, resettlement migration, internal migration and commuting"

The UK tends to define immigrants in terms of the extent to which they mesh with the native culture, socially, ethnically and linguistically. However, it is a person's legal status which determines whether they are allowed to stay in the UK. If a person wishes to come to the UK for longer than a short visit there are only a limited number of legal avenues.