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"ex-pats"
nitenurse
Posts: 1,116 Forum Member
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I hate that term. I see it all the time in letters to the editor.
When do people assume their new nationality? You chose to leave the UK to build a new life in Canada, the US or wherever, but sign off as "expat now living in "xyz".
Just p*sses me off. Call your self whatever but to me an expat is a slightly seedy, older man in a white suit drinking Singapore Slings and moaning about how decent help is hard to find.
(don't mean to be sexist but that's just the picture the phrase conjures up or even worse the Memsahib in a white dress whining about the heat in the last days of the raj)
When do people assume their new nationality? You chose to leave the UK to build a new life in Canada, the US or wherever, but sign off as "expat now living in "xyz".
Just p*sses me off. Call your self whatever but to me an expat is a slightly seedy, older man in a white suit drinking Singapore Slings and moaning about how decent help is hard to find.
(don't mean to be sexist but that's just the picture the phrase conjures up or even worse the Memsahib in a white dress whining about the heat in the last days of the raj)
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I have 2 very close relatives living in Australia and Tennerife.
The one in Australia emails me every few days complaining about how sh*t the country is, but would never want to come back to the UK.
The one in Tennerife sells timeshares and cannot string a Spanish sentence together.
Both are still UK citizens with voting rights in UK elections.
Personally, I would advocate the removal of all rights to British passports, voting rights, pensions etc.........
If you don't like it here, go back to the mothership.
When there are news items affecting these groups they ought to be labelled as such e.g. "The British immigrants in Spain are facing difficult times as the recession takes hold". etc
'Ex-pats', for me, has colonial overtones, as if these people have somehow just moved away to enjoy an alternative corner of the 'empire'.
Do you seriously think that the term applies exclusively to British nationals residing overseas?
"Expatriot" is a term of Latin derivation, which describes any individual residing in a country other than that in which they were brought up/hold legal citizenship.
To seek to apply it exclusively to British subjects living overseas is ill-educated, blinkered claptrap ...
I couldn't agree more!! I think it comes down to that kind of human bragging where such people want us to have what they've got, so they talk up their country as a utopia and completely ignore the negative points. But actually, it makes they come across as an arsehole, like a guy at a party who'se quick to mention the speeding tickets/parking fines he got out of last week.
Or.... people only realise what they've got when it's gone, and so they become decieved it's much better.
Many ex-pats like to remember the way this country was in the past, before things like mass immigration, multiculturalism and the Human Rights Act. Is it looking at the way things were through rose-tinted glasses? Yes, to a certaint extent. But this country has lost something over the last 12 years or so, and I don't think we will ever get it back, and it saddens me. And I am sure it saddens many people who have moved abroad, they remember the country they grew up in and miss it, but realise that the Britain of 2009 is not that country anymore.
My Spanish is passable, and I love my "new" home.
I usually use the expat term to describe people who have been here longer than me, but still think the best way to communicate with the locals is by SHOUTING.
why? it's all in the connotations...
expat (positive) <---> immigrant (negative).
also immigrants are expected to integrate; but expats must not 'go native'.
Sorry darling, I've earned a BA and a BScN, hardly ill-educated and blinkered.
I work with many Europeans and the odd American. I've only ever heard the English describe themselves as "ex-pats".
Your media certainly loves the phrase as well.
Who says that expats must not 'go native'? Most of them do to some extent. Most of the ones that don't are old people who find it hard to cope with learning new things at their age, and even they will pick a few words of the local language.
Lucky you living in Gran Canaria.
My grandmother was Spanish and although i am by no means fluent in Spanish i will try to speak in Spanish before speaking in English.
"Expat" suggests a continuing identification and primary loyalty to their country of origin, and that their residence in the host country may not be permanent.
I know that abscence makes the heart grow fonder but that is pushing the boat out.
Employing patronizing phraseology doesn't enhance your argument.
Regardless of your personal experience, the fact remains that the term can apply to any nationality.
I try not to reference Wikipedia but in this case, I'll make an exception :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expatriate
My media ... ?
Ahh you should have been clearer and referred to "ex pat retirees." Instead you came across as narrow minded.
You´re wondering why they still refer to themselves as ex pats when they have lived abroad for most of their life.
Maybe they still hold a British passport as the one of the country they are living in is rubbish and needs visas to go anywhere, so they are still a British citizen, just not a resident? Maybe they still use English and still have British traditions?
Like Muslim communities in modern Britain then by the sound of it.
Sorry, I am eligible to hold a UK passport and haven't had one in over 30 years. English is one of the two official languages of the country.
The "rubbish" Cdn. passport they carry is cheaper than obtaining a UK one, and doesn't require visas for most destinations.
I just think it's a farce that people who left, worked the majority of their adult life, gave birth to and raised their families while enjoying the economic benefits of another country are calling themselves "ex-pats".
If you in the UK want to feel hard done to factor in that most of these ex-pats manage to claim a UK pension and then whine that it isn't inflation linked and is paid out to the value of when they left the UK. All the while collecting the Cdn. pension and the pensions from the companies they worked for.
To have worked for maybe five years out of a working life of on average 45 years and then complain about being neglected ex-pats by a country that they chose to leave is a total farce.
Then you have not been around much. I am an American expat who is part of a group/club of American and Canadian expats. The term "expatriate" is not exclusive to British emigrants.
Why shouldn't I keep my British passport - I'm still British and very much want to continue being British. I emmigrated because I fell in love with an Irishman and he wanted to live here more than I wanted to live in England, why on earth should I have to stop being British and get rid of my passport to get an Irish one, I live here but I'm not Irish?
I think they felt that 'immigrants' (or economic migrants) was not the right word to describe themselves as they hadn't chosen the move and it wasn't a permanent relocation and see themselves as temporary residents in a host country.
I guess its all semantics but I think that this thread is not at heart about semantics but about wider issues in these days of globailisation and much more freedom of movement of people... issues such as:
What is an immigrant?
When does someone become an immigrant?
How much ties should they retain with their country of origin?
How much should they integrate into their new/host country?
In years gone by when people made the move to Aus/NZ/Canada/the USA it was often with a one way ticket and no expectation of returning. Integration was the only sensible way of getting on with life! However nowadays the internet and cheaper air travel allow a degree of connection with "auld country" and family and friends past that would not have been possible 50 years ago. I think that maybe this has changed the way people identify themselves.
Then there is a separate issue of the Daily Mail double standards where 'ex-pats' are white people in Spain and 'immigrants' are non-white or eastern European in the UK. That bugs me and is not an interesting evolution of the word and its relevance; but is instend a thin veil of smugness across rampant hypocrisy.
Totally agree. I moved to the UK because I fell in love with a British bloke. I've no intention of becoming a British citizen or giving up my Australian citizenship. I live here but I'm not British. Mind you, I don't call myself an ex-pat.