Emigrate vs. immigrate vs. migrate: the real difference

The short answer

All three words describe leaving one place to live in another, but they focus on different ends of the same move. Emigrate means to leave your home country for good, so the focus is on departure. Immigrate means to move into a new country to live there, so the focus is on arrival. Migrate is the broader, neutral term for moving from one place to another, used for people, animals, or data, without pointing to either direction.

• Emigrate: to leave a country, focus on departure
• Immigrate: to enter a country, focus on arrival
• Migrate: general movement, no fixed direction

What each word means

Emigrate almost always pairs with the word from: her grandparents emigrated from Poland in the 1950s and never returned. The word views the move from the perspective of the country being left behind, which is why it is the verb used when officials or historians discuss people departing a homeland for good.

Immigrate almost always pairs with the word to: thousands of workers immigrate to the region each year for seasonal jobs and settle there permanently. The word views the same kind of move from the receiving country's side, which is why immigration officers and immigration forms use this half of the pair rather than the other.

Migrate is the general term and does not require a direction word at all: birds migrate south each winter, and workers sometimes migrate between cities for work without settling anywhere for good. A person can emigrate from one country and immigrate to another in the same single trip; migrate simply describes that overall movement in neutral, direction-free terms.

Immigration vs. emigration: the difference in the nouns

The same split carries over to the related nouns. Emigration is the act of leaving a country, tracked by the country people are leaving. Immigration is the act of entering a country, tracked by the country people are entering. A single move produces one emigration statistic for the origin country and one immigration statistic for the destination country, describing the same event from two sides, which is why government reports often list both figures side by side.

Correct examples in a sentence

The family emigrated from Vietnam in 1985 and settled in California (not: the family immigrated from Vietnam). Her parents immigrated to Canada before she was born (not: her parents emigrated to Canada). Note also that the misspelling emmigration, with a double m, is never correct; the word is spelled emigration, with one m. Species of whales migrate thousands of miles between feeding and breeding grounds every year.

Remember it

Match the first letter of each word to its direction word: Emigrate and Exit both start with E, so emigrate means to exit a country. Immigrate and In both carry that in-sound, so immigrate means to move in. Migrate has neither prefix, so save it for movement in general, without naming a direction, whether you are describing people, animals, or careers moving from one place to another.