EN
The text is an introduction to the Journal of Ethnology’s monothematic issue about expatriates. Its goal is to classify the theme into a wider context, to show that the relation to expatriates differs in different countries and to demonstrate that in many countries the emigration and the relations to expatriates constitute a significant component of the history and a part of processes of national identification. The text also deals with factors that strengthen the relation between the source and the destination country in the process of migration. It shows that the theme of expatriates does not include only the theme of emigration but also that of return migrations. From this point of view, the topicality of the theme of expatriates in Europe and the Czech Republic has rather increased than decreased recently. The examples of particular communities of expatriates come mainly from Europe. The author focused on the examples with Czech expatriates; partially he speaks about German, Polish, Irish and Armenian communities. In the conclusion, he mentions the contemporary trend of double residence and transnational lifestyle.