Make Your Editor Cry: Emigrated to/immigrated from
These homonyms can be confusing. Correctly, “emigrate” and “from” always go together, as do “immigrate” and “to.” To emigrate is to come from somewhere, and to immigrate is to go to somewhere.
Conversely, the words “emigrate” and “to” never go together, and likewise “immigrate” and “from” never pair. To use either of these pairs together in a sentence would be incorrect.
The below correct examples have identical meanings.
Correct:
Boris emigrated from Soviet Russia to the United States.
Boris immigrated to the United States from Soviet Russia.
Incorrect:
Natasha immigrated from Soviet Russia to the United States.
Natasha emigrated to the United States from Soviet Russia.
Gregg Bridgeman is the Editor-in-Chief at Olivia Kimbrell Press. He is husband to best-selling Christian author Hallee Bridgeman and parent to three. He continues to proudly serve in the US Armed Forces and has done so in either an active or reserve capacity for more than twenty years as an airborne and air assault qualified paratrooper, earning a Bronze Star for his service. Most importantly, he was ordained in October of 2001 after surrendering his life to Christ decades earlier.
