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.
