Differences between Emigrate and Immigrate

Emigrate vs. Immigrate

The words emigrate and immigrate both describe the act of moving between countries to establish a new permanent residence, but they are not interchangeable. The distinction between the terms depends on the perspective: emigrate focuses on the country of departure, while immigrate focuses on the country of arrival. A person must first emigrate *from* their home country before they can immigrate *to* a new one.

To emigrate means to leave one's country of residence to live elsewhere permanently. For example, a person who moves from Italy to Canada emigrates from Italy. To immigrate means to enter and settle in a country where one is not a native. Using the same example, that person immigrates to Canada. The related nouns, emigrant and immigrant, follow the same logic; an individual is an emigrant from their country of origin and an immigrant to their destination country.

Comparison table

Category	Emigrate	Immigrate
Core Meaning	To leave one's country to settle in another.	To come into a new country to live permanently.
Perspective	Focuses on the point of departure (exiting).	Focuses on the point of arrival (entering).
Typical Preposition	Followed by "from".	Followed by "to" or "into".
Example Sentence	"Her grandparents emigrated from Ukraine in the 1920s."	"He immigrated to the United States to find work."
Related Noun	Emigrant (a person who has left their country).	Immigrant (a person who has arrived in a new country).

Venn diagram comparing Differences between Emigrate and Immigrate

Etymology

Both words derive from the Latin verb migrare, meaning "to move". The difference comes from their prefixes. Emigrate is derived from the Latin emigrare, which combines e-, a variant of ex- meaning "out of", with migrare. Immigrate comes from the Latin immigrare, formed from in-, meaning "into", and migrare. Therefore, the etymology of the words reinforces their meanings of moving out of and moving into a country, respectively.