clatterbane: amoebagrrrl: class-struggle-anarchism: bloody british immigrants, taking jobs from hard
clatterbane: amoebagrrrl: class-struggle-anarchism: bloody british immigrants, taking jobs from hardworking europeans Jamaican poet Kei Miller wrote a very interesting essay about the difference between the ‘immigrant’ and the ‘expat’ which concluded with this: My problem with the word ‘immigrant’ is that I am only an immigrant because I am Jamaican and I am black. I watch shows on British television of Britons who want to move to ‘A Place in the Sun’ – to a small village in France, or Morocco, or even Jamaica. Their impulses are the same as the woman from Kingston or the man from Lagos who moves to the UK. No one migrates for a worse life. But when the British pack their bags and leave they become Expats, not Immigrants. What a thing! The same process. The same act. But different words. Immigrants are not equal to Expats. Immigration is a problem; expatriation isn’t. Immigrants are expected to always be grateful, but a little bit angry. Expats are allowed to just be – to simply enjoy this new country that they have chosen to live in, and which they might very well choose to leave. The expat is allowed to be a savvy, cosmopolitan person who simply lives somewhere else than the place in which they were born and they don’t have to appear on panel after panel angsting about it all. See also: British Privilege, Entitlement & Exceptionalism in one photo. And that’s just in reference to the rest of the EU. (Coming from someone who is generally assumed to fall into the “expat” category, by virtue of having come from the US. So is my Swedish partner. AFAICT, a lot of it seems to depend on perceived standard of living in your country of origin.) -- source link