What's the difference in meaning between "emigrate" and "immigrate"?

What's the difference between emigrate and immigrate? They seem to have the same definitions in the dictionary but they are antonyms...

Solution 1:

The difference is fairly subtle

• To Emigrate is to leave one country to settle in another. (The focus is on the original country)
• To Immigrate is to come to a new country to live. (The focus is on the new country)

So if I were born in Ireland, and then migrated to the US, all of the following would be true and grammatical:

I emigrated from Ireland.

I immigrated to the US.

(Now the tricky bits)

I emigrated from Ireland to the US. (This focuses on the leaving bit)

I immigrated to the US from Ireland. (This focuses on the arriving bit)

And finally, relatives in Ireland might say:

Dusty emigrated to the US last year. (from their perspective, I left)

While new friends in the US:

Dusty immigrated to the US last year. (from their perspective, I arrived)

Solution 2:

To emigrate is to leave here and move to another country.

To immigrate is to leave another country and move to here.

Solution 3:

The "e" in emigrate is short for "ex", which means "out". You see it in words like exit (to leave), expire (out of breath >> out of time >> death), exterminate (to drive out).

The "im" in immigrate is a variant of "in", which means in. You see it in words like internal (inside), insinuate (to curve in), input (that which is put in).

This "in" should not be confused with the other "in" which means "not", used in such words as indiscriminate, incapable, and insatiable.

So, to emigrate means to exit a location. To immigrate means to come into a location.