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There's a discussion around the english words for people who come to a country. Some people are "expats" and some people are "immigrants". I was talking about
by awongh 3y ago
There's a discussion around the english words for people who come to a country. Some people are "expats" and some people are "immigrants".
I was talking about "immigrants" rather than "expats".
Of course this dynamic has many facets to it. I've met some people in Thailand who couldn't give a shit about Thai people and just wanted to save 50% on their latte. This is a common "expat" sterotype.
There has been, and still is a lot of "orientalization" of Japan, but almost every immigrant you meet in Japan today has a deep love for Japan in some way. (Also because only the truly dedicated would go to the trouble to be able to stay). So if Japan decided to start allowing more people in I feel like they would all fall more on the immigrant side than the expat side.
- eska 3y agoThere isn’t really any ambiguity about the two terms. That’s a dog whistle by people who want to see racism where there is none. They usually say something along the lines of “so when black and brown skinned people go to Europe they’re immigrants. But when white people go to Japan they’re called expats?”. The omitted difference being that most white people going to Japan do not stay permanently. The japanese also differentiate between 移民 and 駐在員 (expat)