Why are white people expats and the rest of us are "immigrants"?

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Samouth
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Why are white people expats and the rest of us are "immigrants"?

Post by Samouth »

This is a very interesting article and it drew a lot of discussions among exports in Cambodia whether they should be called expat or immigrant.

Why are white people expats when the rest of us are immigrants?

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In the lexicon of human migration there are still hierarchical words, created with the purpose of putting white people above everyone else. One of those remnants is the word “expat”.

What is an expat? And who is an expat? According to Wikipedia, “an expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of the person’s upbringing. The word comes from the Latin terms ex (‘out of’) and patria (‘country, fatherland’)”.

Defined that way, you should expect that any person going to work outside of his or her country for a period of time would be an expat, regardless of his skin colour or country. But that is not the case in reality; expat is a term reserved exclusively for western white people going to work abroad.

Africans are immigrants. Arabs are immigrants. Asians are immigrants. However, Europeans are expats because they can’t be at the same level as other ethnicities. They are superior. Immigrants is a term set aside for ‘inferior races’.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/global-devel ... -migration
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Re: Why are white people expats when the rest of us are immi

Post by LTO »

The wisdom of wiki aside, expats don't necessarily plan to stay forever (in part because the often come from good places to which they will eventually return), whereas immigrants do plan to stay (in part because they come from shitty place that they hope never to return.) And aren't western black and asian people living and working abroad 'expats'? Never heard of a black or asian american expats refered to as 'immigrants.'

For example, you can see this reflected in the terminology of US visas. Business and tourist visas are 'non-immigrant visas,' whereas visas for people intending to stay permanently are 'immigrant visas.'
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Re: Why are white people expats when the rest of us are immi

Post by John Bingham »

I'm not too fond of that term "expat" anyway, I prefer to use "foreign residents."
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Re: Why are white people expats and the rest of us are

Post by The Add Jay »

I usually have 2 things I tell tourist who ask me what Im doing here.

#1. Im a political asylum refugee because I believe in small government.

#2. "Private contractor" and I let their imagination run wild. I love that one.
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Re: Why are white people expats and the rest of us are

Post by Jamie_Lambo »

i think its just because its a western word, so they use it to describe themselves, and other non western nationalities that come to live in the western countries call them by the more traditional immigrants, in england everyone that comes to live in england whether theyre from europe/asia/africa, white or black, they are called immigrants, any english person, regardless of skin colour, that goes to live in another country is called an expat, skin colour has nothing to do with it, i do agree on some parts though, i think the word was invented because we tend to look down on immigrants, so theyve made a word up so we are not acosiated with/put in the same category as, the immigrants that come to live in the UK, and as LTO mentioned, all expats, from the uk anyway, have their home country to fall back on, run back to if things dont work out, where as most a good portion of the immigrants that come to live in the UK are running from their countries and also our country has a lot of government benefits that the immigrants can sponge on, where as us Expats when we go to live in a foureign country were not entitled to the same benefits

but i dont think it has anything to do with colour, if i saw a nigerian man over here in cambodia, id call him an expat, if i saw a black french man, id call him an expat, i dont think colour mean anything, you can get black english/american/european etc..
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Re: Why are white people expats and the rest of us are

Post by Hotdigr »

I don't think it has anything to do with colour or race, rather it has to do with intent. Expats are living some, even perhaps the majority, of their lives out side of their home country. Not necessarily in the one place, but intend to return and settle back down home one day. Immigrants have made the decision to move to a new country and intend to make it their new home permanently.
By that definition, I consider myself an immigrant rather then an expat. I'm interested to know what you all consider yourselves to be? I know a some of you long termers would consider yourselves expats, but I also know a few would consider yourselves immigrants.
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Re: Why are white people expats and the rest of us are

Post by Sailorman »

Expats usually have money to live on and/or a job.

Immigrants are usually fleeing oppression, poverty, are pennyless and seeking work and lowest paying jobs.
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Re: Why are white people expats and the rest of us are

Post by vladimir »

Sailorman wrote:Expats usually have money to live on and/or a job.

Immigrants are usually fleeing oppression, poverty, are pennyless and seeking work and lowest paying jobs.
Que ?

So all those people who went to America after the war were penniless? News to me.
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Re: Why are white people expats and the rest of us are

Post by TheGrinchSR »

I can't believe people are still dragging out that Guardian article... it's not racism, it's classism. Though expats normally intend to go home many do not, and many immigrants don't intend to go home and do.

But immigrants occupy the lowest rung of the ladder in their new countries; Polish immigrants to the UK for example (and I don't hate Polish immigrants given that both of my maternal grandparents were Polish and immigrated to the UK at the request of the British government in the aftermath of WW2) tend to clean toilets, tend bar, etc. Not because they lack skills but because that's how you start life when you migrate for economic reasons. A toilet cleaner on minimum wage in the UK is earning 5-7 times as much as they would in a profession in Poland.

Expats, on the other hand, are normally recruited for skills lacking in the host nation. When I was in Dubai, for example, there were more than 100 nationalities (of all colours) working at the telco I worked for - they all did skilled work and were all classed as expats. I'd put a lot of money on the fact that many of them will never leave Dubai in their lives but that's how it works.
Last edited by TheGrinchSR on Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Why are white people expats and the rest of us are

Post by BOFH »

lol at racial colony debate. It's pretty simple really. Immigrants are citizens, expats are not.
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