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immigrant meaning and examples

2025-08-31

Meaning

An immigrant is a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country. It refers to someone who moves into a new country to settle there, often for work, education, or family reasons.

Grammar and Usage

  • Part of speech: Noun (countable)

  • Plural: immigrants

  • Used to describe people entering a country to live, not leaving it. (People leaving are called emigrants.)

  • Typical sentence structure:

    • an immigrant from [country]
    • immigrants to [country]

Common Phrases

  • immigrant community
  • immigrant family
  • illegal immigrant
  • first-generation immigrant
  • immigrant background

Collocations

  • adjectives + immigrant: illegal immigrant, legal immigrant, new immigrant, first-generation immigrant
  • verbs + immigrant: welcome immigrants, deport immigrants, attract immigrants, support immigrants
  • nouns + immigrant: immigrant population, immigrant community, immigrant workers

Examples

  1. Many immigrants come to the United States in search of better opportunities.
  2. She is an immigrant from Mexico who moved to Canada five years ago.
  3. Immigrant communities often preserve their cultural traditions.
  4. The country has passed new laws to support immigrant families.
  5. As a first-generation immigrant, he had to adapt to a new language and culture.
  6. The city is home to thousands of immigrants from around the world.
  7. The school provides special programs for immigrant children.
  8. My grandparents were immigrants who arrived in the early 1900s.
  • migrant
  • newcomer
  • settler
  • expatriate (expat)
  • emigrant (opposite perspective – one who leaves their home country)