Immigrants, Expats & Refugees: Who is who?

-Perplexity between “Immigrants” and “expats” heated the debate in recent years to draw the fences of identification for both classes.  When somebody is expats and when an immigrant, it leaves the mind in two states. The narrative of these terms makes the concept bit easier though not clear practically to differentiate between the both.

According to Miriam-Webster the word “Expatriate” is actually a verb or an adjective and means someone “living in a foreign land” and the word “Immigrant” is a noun and means “a person who comes to a country to take permanent residence”. Further the German word “Expatriate”, which comes, obviously enough, from the Latin (ex - out of and patria - fatherland) is used to refer to a ‘qualified worker who goes abroad to work for an international company for a specified amount of time’.

The issue in not merely to bifurcate the two words in terms of their meanings but to understand the legacy associated with these terms in different countries. For example, an Asian is immigrant in Europe but an American is expats in same territory. When Brits move abroad they are far more likely to be called “expats,” a label that conjures up images of sunburned British skin not used to a warm climate and a career in industries like diplomacy, media, or finance. So, if Brits who move to another country are not ‘immigrants,’ but rather, ‘expats,’

What exactly is the difference between the two terms; need more deliberation to make the concept simpler. English speakers also tend to use the word expat to refer to a 'better class' of immigrant. This is an engineered explanation available for readers to get the gist easily rather to brainstorm in nitty-gritty of the terms. Generally, a concept prevailed for a longer span that the difference between both is as the ‘immigrants stay in the adopted land while expats eventually leave.’

The differentiation between immigrants and expats found in common usage usually comes down to socio-economic factors, so skilled professionals working in another country are described as expatriates, whereas a manual labourer who has moved to another country to earn more money might be labelled an ‘immigrant’. There is no set definition and usage does vary depending on context and individual preferences and prejudices. There is a slight difference reflected in the narratives attached to each. Successful American immigrants such as Indian Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo or Ukrainian Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp, are heralded for “making it,” but they never fully shed the “immigrant” label or a mention of where they came from. With an Anglophone like, say, Rupert Murdoch of Australia or Tina Brown of Britain, their countries of origin seems less relevant. In those cases it seems intention doesn’t as much matter as arriving from a former colonial superpower. Or take an Arab Gulf country like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where there are a staggering 7.8 million non-citizens out of a total population of 9.2 million. The vast majority of those foreigners are migrant workers building the shopping malls and luxury condos that make the country appealing for the small slice of affluent “expats.”

Another interesting cum surprising definition of the terms states that you are a ‘migrant’ when you are very poor ‘immigrant’ and when you are not so poor and you are a rich person then you are an ‘expat’. In the lexicon of ‘Human Migration’ there are still hierarchical words, created with the purpose of putting white people above everyone else. One of those remnants is the word “expat”. The definition of expats as provided in the different dictionaries and encyclopedias one should expect that any person going to work outside of his or her country for a period of time would be an expat, regardless of his skin colour or country. But that is not the case in reality; expat is a term reserved exclusively for ‘Western White’ people going to work abroad. Africans, Arabs and Asians are immigrants. However, Europeans are expats because they can’t be at the same level as other ethnicities. They are superior. Immigrants is a term set aside for ‘inferior races’. Mostly writers are very strict to encapsulate the difference between both terms as when you see Americans or Europeans living on shores that aren't their own, you inevitably see them referred to as "expatriates." But when you see Asian, Arabs or Africans living on shores that aren't their own, they get a different label of “immigrants”.

The concept leading to heated debate of being superior or inferior in terms of race and ethnicity. Where skin color, language, and land matter to choose the name as ‘Immigrant’ or as ‘expat’. An African migrant worker states the reality as he experienced that top African professionals going to work in Europe are not considered expats. They are immigrants. He says, “I work for multinational organizations both in the private and public sectors. And being black or coloured doesn’t gain me the term “expat”. I’m a highly qualified immigrant, as they call me, to be politically correct.”

To make the discussion more interesting one can argument that Westerners don’t like referring to themselves as immigrants because the word “immigrant” has such inferior connotations. An immigrant is an unwanted job-stealer, while an expat is a foreigner who could be leaving any day. An immigrant is on a desperate search for a better life while an expat is on an adventure. The usage of these words reveals a certain double standard. Whether you are an expat or an immigrant depends not on your residency plans, but on the relative wealth of your native country. Although, this reality is so unfortunate to judge someone’s prestige, position and humanity on the wealth scale. While, on the other hand this unfortunate reality exists even in the 21^st century with its fullest might. 

Here are the main conclusions: “Some arrivals are described as expats; others as immigrants; and some simply as migrants. It depends on social class, country of origin and economic status. Anyone with roots in a western country is considered an expat. Who decides what ethnicity a person should have to be called a migrant? Who decides what socio-economic background, or legal status, qualifies someone for the ‘expat’ label? Let’s scrap the ‘migrant’ label and call everyone living outside their native country an expat.

Other than immigrants and expats another term is quite common as ‘refugees’. Cross borders human trafficking is a veteran phenomenon. Since the industrialization, urbanization and modernization; the lure to select a better living place is quite natural desire. European Union, America, Australia and many other states in the world opened their borders for immigration purposes to enrich their soils with skilled man powers. However, despite all legal and security measures, illegal human trafficking in different parts of the world including Europe, America, Africa and Asia is still an unstoppable pain. During and after the World War-I (1914-1918) & II (1939-1945), a huge sum of masses left their home lands as refugees in the neighboring states for search of shelter. 

            Immigrants, expats or refugees is not simply a matter of human displacement from one land to another whereas, its case of ‘identification’. Like the immigrants and expats, a refugee’s definition is core to get the gist of discussion. For example a refugee “move out of fear or necessity such as to flee persecution, or because their homes have been destroyed in a natural disaster etc.” Another available definition in the literature makes it simpler for readers that refugees are defined as persons, who move out of one’s country due to restriction or danger to their lives.”  For comparison we can say that immigration is considered a natural phenomenon in population ecology, whereas the refugee movement occurs only under some kind of coercion or pressure.

            The reasons for being immigrants or expats are usually driven by economic factors, or they want to be close to family. Whereas, refugees are forced to relocate for reasons such as fear of persecution due to war, religion or political opinion. Historically, number of incidents are on record where people choose to moved out from their native lands to other states due to war conflicts, independence movements, religious  and secretarial confrontations etc. In the recent years, post 9/11 trauma of terrorist attacks on skyscrapers of World Trade Center and subsequently launches of US war against terrorism boost the masses relocation as refugees in some part of Gulf and South Asia particularly in Afghanistan. The states discloses that number of people living as refugees from war or persecution exceeded 50 million in 2013, for the first time since World War Two. The overall figure of 51.2 million is six million higher than the year before, a report revealed compiled by the UN refugee agency.  United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) claims that refugees should not be forcibly returned and should not go back unless it is safe to do so, and they have homes to return to. For many - among them the more than 300,000 mainly Somali refugees in Kenya's Dadaab camp - that is a very distant prospect. Some camps, the UN refugee agency admits, have become virtually permanent, with their own schools, hospitals, and businesses. But they are not, and can never be, home. The worldwide total of 51.2 million forcibly displaced represents a huge number of people in need of help, with implications both for foreign aid budgets in the world's donor nations and the absorption and hosting capacities of countries on the front lines of refugee crises.

            Immigrants, expats or refugees; any of these identification is not natural rather situational. One would always prefer not to lose the ‘identification’ and ‘pride’ belonging to a nation, tribe or state. Respect, care and fair deal in any case of identification on any land is imperative if not legally then humanly.

Note: Article is also published in Weekly PULSE Islamabad.