A migrant is a person who moves from one place to another, usually to find work, better living conditions, or safety.

Migrant farmworkers travel from region to region following the harvest seasons, picking strawberries in California in spring, then moving north to pick apples in Washington in fall. Migrant workers helped build America's railroads in the 1800s, moving from town to town as the tracks extended westward. Today, construction workers might work as migrants, moving between cities where new buildings are being constructed.

The word simply describes movement and doesn't tell us whether someone moved across town, across a state, or across an ocean. It focuses on the act of moving rather than where someone started or ended up. Birds are migrants too: they fly thousands of miles between summer and winter homes, following the seasons.

People sometimes confuse migrant with immigrant, but they're different. An immigrant is specifically someone who moves to a new country to live there permanently. A migrant might move temporarily, seasonally, or just within the same country. Every immigrant is a migrant, but not every migrant is an immigrant. Someone who moves from Texas to Alaska for a summer fishing job is a migrant worker, not an immigrant.