The term 'expat': does it have a negative connotation for you?

[RenegadeDog]

This came up on another forum. I said that to me 'expat' implies a very specific sort of person: in another country on a high paying western-level salary, sends their kids to international school, lives in a luxury flat, eats mostly western imported goods, etc. But others have said that expat is anybody living abroad.

Which is it for you?

[gaijingirl]

I think it depends on how you use it. I have plenty of friends living abroad and I would describe them as expats. However, some of them, I would describe as living the "expat lifestyle" - which does have a bit of a loaded meaning (whether or not it is a negative meaning would depend though). :)

However, those who have married native inhabitants - for some reason, I do not describe as expats.

Good question....!!

[mango5]

Almost anyone who is not born here is an expat, including other South Pacific Islanders. Those who have married/live with locals are definately expats. Impoverished volunteers are definately expats. The connotation is not always negative, but it's not very positive. Definately an outsider. The biggest compliment is to be called a 'black man in a white man skin' - very rare. I'd go with gaijingirl about the negative connotations of 'expat lifestyle', although the distinction isn't much made here (except by expats ;) )

[ice-is-forming]

This came up on another forum. I said that to me 'expat' implies a very specific sort of person: in another country on a high paying western-level salary, sends their kids to international school, lives in a luxury flat, eats mostly western imported goods, etc. But others have said that expat is anybody living abroad.

Which is it for you?


hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahaha.. i wish :D

[lunatrick]

I'm with Ice - it may mean that in places like Dubai - but in Oz it just refers to anybody who wasn't born here.....althugh the most used term is Pom....

[Dhimmi]

I voted just someone living abroad, which it is - but it's most often used as a slight I think, when "Little Englander Abroad" might be more approriate.

So by definition you're an ex-pat RD, but as most here know far from a Little Englander. Sorry to have to break it to you. :p

[Yossarian]

For me - although I´ve lived most of my adult life as an expatriate in various countries - the term still makes me think of Western Europeans, Americans, or Australians living in compounds in Saudi Arabia or wherever, or at least people on fixed-term contracts in a foreign country.

Poles, Pakistanis, and Chinese living in the UK are definitely expatriates, but I don´t think I´ve ever heard them referred to as expats.

[RenegadeDog]

Precisely Yoss - we don't talk about the 'Polish expat community', do we?

Personally, I finally decided I wasn't an expat when I started buying, and enjoying, duck intestine. :D :eek:

[Yossarian]

Can´t go wrong with a bit of Chiu Chow food! :D

[RenegadeDog]

Is that a Hong Kong thing?

[Yossarian]

Chiu Chow´s somewhere in Fujian province, I think - but a lot of people from there moved to Hong Kong where their cuisine proved popular - lots of heavy intestine and blood-based dishes, washed down with Iron Buddha tea!

[RenegadeDog]

Ah, I see. The stuff I get is just simple duck intestine on its own, but pasted with a sort of chilli powder stuff.

[Yossarian]

That sounds pretty good - but if you´re ever offered a duck´s blood popsicle, just say no.

Although I guess I could eat all the bizarre food I wanted and still be an expat - in Hong Kong the line was pretty clearly drawn, and I reckon especially by the ´expats´ themselves, between those who were sent out there by their companies on contracts and were therefore expatriates, and those like myself who went out there on spec and were consequently the white trash of Asia, or something like that. ;)

[Jonti]

Yeah, "expat" is a chiefly British term.

My take is much the same as Yossarian's:- the word was originally used in a neo-colonial sense to mean someone on an overseas posting with a corporate, to distinguish those worthy types from "the locals"; and from Brits in the services; and from those that had traveled independently.

It seems to be shifting meaning now. I've a feeling Brits in Spain style themselves as expats for example. Heh! Wonder why they don't just call themselves "immigrants".

But still, people who've settled, who've made their homes and futures abroad, aren't usually what is meant by the term. So members of a highly paid Chinese trade delegation may be part of the "London ex-pat community"; but not the family that runs the local take-away.

When is an expat an immigrant, if ever?

[chymaera]

When is an expat an immigrant, if ever?


When they claim benefit?

[J77]

Yeah -- I'm living abroad and I revile the term "expat".

This tshirt pretty much sums up why I don't like expatriatism...

http://www.europeanvoice.com/images/expatica_guide_advert.jpg

[selamlar]

I would have thought that the difference depends on where the person is legally resident. I am a British subject, but I work in Turkey. I am therefore an expat. If I lived in Turkey for 11 months of the year (as in fact I do), for whatever reason, I remain an expat, but if I take Turkish citizenship (which I have no intention of doing, despite my wife being Turkish) I then become an immigrant

[phildwyer]

I would have thought that the difference depends on where the person is legally resident. I am a British subject, but I work in Turkey. I am therefore an expat. If I lived in Turkey for 11 months of the year (as in fact I do), for whatever reason, I remain an expat, but if I take Turkish citizenship (which I have no intention of doing, despite my wife being Turkish) I then become an immigrant

Why wouldn't you take Turkish citizenship? By my understanding it's easy to do, brings many material advantages if you live there, and doesn't jeopardize your citizenship of the UK.

[selamlar]

brings many material advantages if you live there,

Including being eligable for national service

[jæd]

Including being eligable for national service

Dodgy human rights record (ie, much worse than the US) would be a disadvantage...

[selamlar]

This is of course true, but on a more personal note, and to quote the immortal Joe Strummer,

I don’t wanna go fighting in the tropical heat

[ramjamclub]

I have lived nearly 2/3 of my life abroad in Holland . My partner is Dutch. The term expat is more for other peoples convenience to be able to understand my situation. It dosen't have any negative connotations for me.

[chymaera]

[QUOTE=J77]Yeah -- I'm living abroad and I revile the term "expat".

This tshirt pretty much sums up why I don't like expatriatism...

[QUOTE]

"I am not a tourist" T-shirts and car stickers are a common sight in Britain.
Usually sported by angst ridden locals pissed off with tourists.

[phildwyer]

Including being eligable for national service

Good point. And in Turkey you actually *do* have to go fighting in the tropical heat. And they make a point of posting Westernized Turks to the front line, so Lord knows where they'd put a Brit. You'd probably be storming the Grand Mosque in Mosul within weeks.

[RenegadeDog]

Good point. And in Turkey you actually *do* have to go fighting in the tropical heat. And they make a point of posting Westernized Turks to the front line, so Lord knows where they'd put a Brit. You'd probably be storming the Grand Mosque in Mosul within weeks.


:D