Hello all, this is just a curiosity I have as to the choice of this adjective to describe one's immigration status. I did look up the word "expat" on the internet and came up with several explanations, including:
"You’re a ‘migrant’ when you’re very poor; ‘immigrant’ when you’re not so poor; and ‘expat’ when you’re rich."
"‘Expats’ in Greece are depicted as white; ‘migrants’ as darker-skinned."
"Immigrants have an intention to stay – whereas for the expatriates this intention isn’t mentioned and isn’t clear."
but then:
"Unlike the term immigrant, expatriate implies privilege and the choices that come along with it. We use these terms to differentiate between those with resources and privilege and those without."
I don't wish to make anyone feel uncomfortable, nor do I think most posters here are rich (most strike me as people I would have been friends with back in the States, f.e. middle class) but I do feel there is a bias to this word related to where a person was born. Namely, whether the country where this person was born is or isn't considered wealthy (an individual's wealth seems not to matter much) and as this article suggests, also tied to a person's race.
I don't condone judging an individual by the amount of wealth he or she has personally amassed, but it strikes me as even more unfair to make a judgement based on the wealth of the country he or she was born in (since we cannot help where we're born!).
This is not to say that anyone should feel guilty for ever having used this label on themselves, especially since this is probably the first time anyone brings up this "expat vs immigrant/migrant" topic. I am Caucasian myself so I don't mean to make people uncomfortable over the way they look or their heritage, but rather to shed light on biases that sometimes we take for granted without giving them a second thought.
Personally, I don't see "immigrant" as a negative word, but I can understand why some people might feel that way given the climate of discrimination in some countries. Maybe a better solution, rather than everyone calling themselves immigrants would be adopting "expat" for everyone, regardless of country of origin.
These are some interesting articles about this:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/09/british-abroad-expats-immigrants-indians
http://www.antropologi.info/blog/anthropology/2011/expats-and-migrants
http://somebodyislovingyou.blogspot.com.ar/2013/11/the-difference-between-immigrant-and.html
http://disinfo.com/2013/11/immigrants-versus-expats/
"You’re a ‘migrant’ when you’re very poor; ‘immigrant’ when you’re not so poor; and ‘expat’ when you’re rich."
"‘Expats’ in Greece are depicted as white; ‘migrants’ as darker-skinned."
"Immigrants have an intention to stay – whereas for the expatriates this intention isn’t mentioned and isn’t clear."
but then:
"Unlike the term immigrant, expatriate implies privilege and the choices that come along with it. We use these terms to differentiate between those with resources and privilege and those without."
I don't wish to make anyone feel uncomfortable, nor do I think most posters here are rich (most strike me as people I would have been friends with back in the States, f.e. middle class) but I do feel there is a bias to this word related to where a person was born. Namely, whether the country where this person was born is or isn't considered wealthy (an individual's wealth seems not to matter much) and as this article suggests, also tied to a person's race.
I don't condone judging an individual by the amount of wealth he or she has personally amassed, but it strikes me as even more unfair to make a judgement based on the wealth of the country he or she was born in (since we cannot help where we're born!).
This is not to say that anyone should feel guilty for ever having used this label on themselves, especially since this is probably the first time anyone brings up this "expat vs immigrant/migrant" topic. I am Caucasian myself so I don't mean to make people uncomfortable over the way they look or their heritage, but rather to shed light on biases that sometimes we take for granted without giving them a second thought.
Personally, I don't see "immigrant" as a negative word, but I can understand why some people might feel that way given the climate of discrimination in some countries. Maybe a better solution, rather than everyone calling themselves immigrants would be adopting "expat" for everyone, regardless of country of origin.
These are some interesting articles about this:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/09/british-abroad-expats-immigrants-indians
http://www.antropologi.info/blog/anthropology/2011/expats-and-migrants
http://somebodyislovingyou.blogspot.com.ar/2013/11/the-difference-between-immigrant-and.html
http://disinfo.com/2013/11/immigrants-versus-expats/
