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By Camha Pham

Why are western expats elevated into a privileged bubble, while migrants in the west are reduced to social disadvantage? Camha Pham reflects on her own experience as an expat in Cambodia.

I arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as just another archetypal, wide-eyed expat, curious about the city and its citizens and excited to explore its inner working.

However, there’s a wide chasm that exists between the individual expat and migrant experiences of outsiderness – a disparity that has perhaps stemmed and grown out of a historical basis in colonialism and its ensuing by-products of exploitation and oppression.

Western expats are seemingly elevated into a place of privilege, while non-Western migrants are immediately delegated to a place of societal and, often, financial disadvantage.

This dichotomy demonstrates a Western privilege and entitlement that has been defined and reinforced throughout centuries of colonisation.

If there is anything that we should thank our colonial fathers for, it should be that they have gifted future generations with a privilege that we inadvertently possess by way of being born into a Western country; a privilege that at times presents itself unknowingly in everyday interactions, the places we frequent and the company we choose to keep.

Colonialists flagrantly imposed their own cultures and customs over their subjects, and unfortunately very little has changed in the historical narrative.

Full article https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/life/cult ... t-struggle

isn't it more a white vs colored thing?
not necessarily a privileged thing?

I think she conflates white with privilege, as many people do.

Whole bunch of poor whites would disagree with her.

White privilege isn't worth much unless there is money to back it up. Same goes for Cambodian privilege.

i think its all BS
Migrants leave their country and move to another for a better life and to avoid having their families and themselves killed
plus its a permanent move

Doubt many expats move to Camboida for the same reasons and doubt for many, they view it as a permanence move

I frequented between hipster cafes serving tropical açaí bowls and on-trend vegan fare, but made sure to try the fish amok so I could tick the ‘ate local food’ box.

I stopped reading at this line.

I think she's failing to understand that most Westerners are not in Cambodia to move, rather they are often tourists or short term residents with money. The hostilities towards the Chinese however are a different matter, and day after day I hear more and more Cambodians complaining about the invading Chinese, despite the money they are bringing. It's obvious they are here to stay longer term.

I think the whole article is a gross overgeneralisation of a subject that needs much more complex discussion though.

Immigrants immigrate. In order to immigrate one must naturalize. Naturalization grants citizenship. Expats don't naturalize but are just long term tourists or short term migrants. Teaching TEFL for a year to Cambodian kids or eating prahok doesn't make you Cambodian. The idea that there is any racism involved in the separation of these two terms is the same old SJW bore. Any questions?

She seems to think her narrow experience hanging out with hipster twats is somehow representative of every other foreigners. Clueless garbage.

that is a very small pineapple

how much?