Current Events > How do you feel about the term 'expat'?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Personally, Im not a fan. It tends to be used to differentiate white immigrants of means from other immigrants in order to make it easier to demonise other immigrants. Id much rather be referred to as an immigrant than as an expat.

I've never used it or seen anybody use it

I thought it was for people who renounced their citizenship, not for regular immigrants.

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Yeah, my issue is with how it used rather than the word itself.

PMarth2002 posted...

I thought it was for people who renounced their citizenship, not for regular immigrants.

Its frequently used for people who have not renounced their citizenship. I get called one all the time but theres no way Im ditching my British passport.

I refer to myself as an "expat" because I still have significant practical ties to my home country, and the future is uncertain enough that I don't know how long I'll be here. To me, "immigrant" has an implication of permanency that I just don't feel yet.

But I'm working on the process to be a proper immigrant within a few years. >_>

But at the end of the day I really don't care one way or the other about the terminology. I'm just focused on the practicality of sorting out some life shit and getting a permanent residency. I'll let the government bureaucrats worry about semantics <_<

There are many ex pats

Bruschi is my fav

Biased anecdotally, but I usually hear "expat" used for people of the US living elsewhere and "immigrant" used for people moving to the US.

Like I think it would be weird for me as someone in the US to refer to someone from the US moving elsewhere as an "American immigrant", but that's because there's something about the language that is "leaving my country" vs "joining my country" if that distinction makes sense.

Anteaterking posted...

Biased anecdotally, but I usually hear "expat" used for people of the US living elsewhere and "immigrant" used for people moving to the US.

Like I think it would be weird for me as someone in the US to refer to someone from the US moving elsewhere as an "American immigrant", but that's because there's something about the language that is "leaving my country" vs "joining my country" if that distinction makes sense.

Sounds like ethnocentric thinking, but thats not unique to the US. Plenty of Brits seem to think Brits living abroad are expats but people from other countries are immigrants.

Glob posted...

Sounds like ethnocentric thinking, but thats not unique to the US. Plenty of Brits seem to think Brits living abroad are expats but people from other countries are immigrants.

I don't think it's necessarily *ethnocentric*. I would use the same term for a number of people of different ethnicities if those people were originally US citizens.

Also tbf, I don't inherently think of the term "expat" in positive terms. Usually I think of someone taking advantage of economic disparity to live in a country where their money goes much higher, without any expectation of truly becoming a citizen of the country.

Anteaterking posted...

I don't think it's necessarily *ethnocentric*. I would use the same term for a number of people of different ethnicities if those people were originally US citizens.

Also tbf, I don't inherently think of the term "expat" in positive terms. Usually I think of someone taking advantage of economic disparity to live in a country where their money goes much higher, without any expectation of truly becoming a citizen of the country.

In fairness, thats part of my motivation. Im not sure whats wrong with that though.

Dumb term made up by idiots who think themselves too good to be immigrants.

I don't think you should let normal words be tainted by nonsense.