I don’t hate the term expat when the distinction corresponds to a real, class difference between two people who each temporarily live in another country. It expresses a reality that being cosmopolitan is a status symbol. If you have enough wealth and privilege, you get to be international in a way others can’t. Moving countries is more about aesthetic than anything about opportunity or survival.
Jeff Bezos might find himself in Italy one month and in South Africa the next. I would not call that an immigrant life. It would be insulting to immigrants to suggest it
Of course not all “expats” are ultra-wealthy. They’re privileged working class who get assigned by a Western corporation which has outposts in other countries. The social reality of that situation is closer to Jeff Bezos than to the average immigrant who has to find domestic work and put down meaningful roots in order to make it. “Expats” are taken care of for the entire duration of their experience in the country by the same corporation that pays them in their home country.
The above notwithstanding, you definitely catch a vibe from many “expats” that they consider themselves better than immigrants, and in that way I completely agree with your distaste for the term.
The above notwithstanding, you definitely catch a vibe from many “expats” that they consider themselves better than immigrants, and in that way I completely agree with your distaste for the term.
Locals don’t like expats either.
If they are American, they swarm Irish and English pubs. lol
The term itself is useful (someone who is living in another country but intends to return) and distinct from immigrants (someone who permanently moves to another country, but it is constantly misused. Migrants are a subset of expats who move because of work, although the line gets blurry because almost all expats have to work abroad.
So a Mexican farm worker who spends most of the year in California but goes home to Mexico in the winter is an expat, but he usually won’t receive that label because of racism.
I find it kind of useful sometimes. It’s an easy word to say while accidentally spitting on the person you’re talking to. So you can channel your inner Daffy Duck when you’re talking to an expat and ruin their fancy shirt (they always wear “fancy” shirts)
I fucking hate the term expat
I don’t hate the term expat when the distinction corresponds to a real, class difference between two people who each temporarily live in another country. It expresses a reality that being cosmopolitan is a status symbol. If you have enough wealth and privilege, you get to be international in a way others can’t. Moving countries is more about aesthetic than anything about opportunity or survival.
Jeff Bezos might find himself in Italy one month and in South Africa the next. I would not call that an immigrant life. It would be insulting to immigrants to suggest it
Of course not all “expats” are ultra-wealthy. They’re privileged working class who get assigned by a Western corporation which has outposts in other countries. The social reality of that situation is closer to Jeff Bezos than to the average immigrant who has to find domestic work and put down meaningful roots in order to make it. “Expats” are taken care of for the entire duration of their experience in the country by the same corporation that pays them in their home country.
The above notwithstanding, you definitely catch a vibe from many “expats” that they consider themselves better than immigrants, and in that way I completely agree with your distaste for the term.
Locals don’t like expats either.
If they are American, they swarm Irish and English pubs. lol
Tired: Expat.
Wired: Emigrée.
The term itself is useful (someone who is living in another country but intends to return) and distinct from immigrants (someone who permanently moves to another country, but it is constantly misused. Migrants are a subset of expats who move because of work, although the line gets blurry because almost all expats have to work abroad.
So a Mexican farm worker who spends most of the year in California but goes home to Mexico in the winter is an expat, but he usually won’t receive that label because of racism.
I find it kind of useful sometimes. It’s an easy word to say while accidentally spitting on the person you’re talking to. So you can channel your inner Daffy Duck when you’re talking to an expat and ruin their fancy shirt (they always wear “fancy” shirts)