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Understanding the difference between commonly confused words will help you avoid making errors in English usage. Let’s examine the difference between the following:
Both of these words involve leaving a country and moving to somewhere new, but they differ in direction.
emigrate
Emigrate means to leave one’s own country to settle in another one permanently.
immigrate
Immigrate means to come into a country of which one is not a native to settle there permanently.
A person emigrates from a place of departure, or immigrates to a destination.
Helga’s grandparents emigrated from Canada and immigrated to Australia in the 1950s.Whether you use immigrate or emigrate depends largely on your point of view. From the perspective of Canada, the grandparents in the example above emigrated from that nation. From the perspective of Australia, the grandparents immigrated to that country.
☛ To help you remember the difference between the two words, recall that emigrate starts with e for exit, and immigrate starts with i for into.
Photo credits:
Photo 1: Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
Photo 2: Image by 1343024 from Pixabay. Modified by Lori J. Cartmell