By: Sarah
Beautiful said, Kasum. Thank you! X By: sveeteskapes
I love your take on this topic, Sarah! Nicely put, I hate the discrimination based on the status, we might be from different countries but we are all humans to begin with, as long as we are living within our legal bounds no body should see 'immigrant' as a negative thing.
xx, Kusum | www.sveeteskapes.com By: Sarah
Yes, isn't it awful how people judge one another. I know that I've been socialised into thinking this way, like the whole of Britain and indeed the Western World- everyone is an immigrant in some country, and everyone is an expat in others. When I was talking about what I ate in Italy earlier with my brother, I had to physically stop myself from saying "Chinese immigrants" when talking about the Chinese restaurants- I wouldn't say American or British immigrants, I would naturally say "expats". I'm really going to try to unlearn the discrimination I've been brought up around. By: Anne-Sophie
Very interesting read! I had never thought about that, but I have always been shocked at how many people look down on 'immigrants' in Europe - even if they are just hardworking people looking for a better life. Meanwhile, the European 'expats' in Asia get treated like kings! It's crazy. Surely expats are also taking up a job that someone else could have done? Most don't live off of their assets; they live off of the amazing salaries and benefits that their companies give them! By: Sarah
Thanks Liana, and I'm glad to hear it! By: Liana
I don't get why there's a difference in the common language. The word immigrant is definitely connoted badly and that's sad! This was really interesting to read, and you're right the only way to come around this is educations and I fight for this! x
http://tomboychronicle.com/ By: Sarah
I bet your degree was so insightful! I must look at courses for myself, I find it all so fascinating. You're absolutely right. It's very difficult these days - this morning's newspaper for example has written "ENGLANDS POPULATION WILL RISE TO 4 MILLION DUE TO IMMIGRANTS", constantly scaring the general public and reinforcing judgemental and discriminative views. Le sigh By: jess_friend
Hi Sarah, This was an interesting read. When I studied International Development at university, we looked at how the term 'expat' is often connected with ideas around colonialism and how often the sentiment has been retained in post colonialism. As you say, they only way around this is that we have an education rooted in 'international mindedness', we teach our younger generations to appreciated the similarities and differences between nationalities - rather than seeing it as a boundary. By: Sarah
Thanks for that insight Blair. It was sad in Maldives that expats and 'immigrants' kept themselves separate- however I think this is mostly due to language barriers than anything else. By: Blair Villanueva
"immigrants" and "expats" are just the same and most thinks its different because of many cultural differences. Here in the Philippines, the locals use the term "expats" for all foreign individuals, either already living here for many years, or just a visitor.
