Language topic

aAxAKK9_460s.jpg


I suspect that's what Afrikaans looks like to Dutch people.
 
I read a headline today that stated, "Qatar is the first Gulf State to offer Expat permanent residency."

Obviously trying to elicit some attention I posted the article on my Facebook with, "Expat, of course, refers to white immigrants." To which a friend asked for data and I linked him an article explaining how "White" countries have "expats" while the rest of the world are "immigrants." Subtle linguistic racism. Since nothing is a coincidence, a student today asked me, "Teacher, what's the difference between costumer and client?" I automatically answered, "None, they are synonyms." Then I thought about it, what is the difference. Then it hit me. Thrift stores, grocery stores have costumers, but lawyers have clients. Doctors have patients. All these places and people are providing a service people pay for. We are all their customers. I may be paranoid, but to me the difference between customer and client, not so much patient, is classist in nature. Whores have costumers, high class call girls have clients.

Sometimes it is political correctness. When I worked as a case manager at the behavioral health clinic, my caseload of 55 people were my "clients." Not customers, not patients (I'm not a medical doctor), not crazies... clients. In Spanish however, we only have "client" for ALL situations, "customer" does not exist. Well, doctors do have "pacientes."

What do you guys think of linguistic classism/racism? Can you think of examples in your native languages?

For example in the last 20 years Spanish has come under fire for being inherently sexist. as a group of males is "Ellos" (They), a group of females is "Ellas," however you can have a group of 1,000 women and ONE baby boy and it is "Ellos" as it would be with the reverse of 5 boys and a 1 woman. Our ex-president, Vicente Fox, came under a lot of fire for saying, "mexicanos y mexicanas." It's caught on somewhat, but Mexico isn't particularly known for political correctness.

link to the articles mentioned:
Qatar https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...cial&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=business

Expat v Immigrant https://www.theguardian.com/global-...r/13/white-people-expats-immigrants-migration
 
Client is not a word I encounter in Scotland that much; it feels like it's used mainly to describe a professional customer, if that makes sense. Either way, customer to me says transaction, money. Most people who provide, for example, a public service are only paid by the service user indirectly (& indirectly many points removed i.e. via general taxation); most people would not (in Scotland) define those service users as "customers" e.g. Doctors have patients (as you mention) not customers.
 
While I do get that 'expat' and 'immigrant' are loaded with connotations about race and wealth, expat is used in the sense of 'emigrant' rather than 'immigrant', they're not completely interchangeable. The word emigrant isn't used much at all these days, maybe because of the confusion caused by it sounding too much like immigrant. I also tend to find people who refer to themselves as expats are consciously making it clear they identify first and foremost with their country of origin, and want to maintain links and citizen status so they can return at will without being classed as outsiders. (And get state help when they need it.)
 
I've checked the word expatriate and it confirmed that it's latin for "out of native country", and that means that person that calls himself an expat does affirm he has a different home land.
 
I've heard the argument about whites being expats and all others being immigrants before, and as Brigs and Zare said, it's difficult. It's not entirely untrue, especially if you compare an economic migrant from Africa and a white guy in Dubai - but many immigrants do severe the ties to their homeland. Not all, maybe not even most, but many.
 
That "emigrant" had to "immigrate" somewhere, unless they live on a boat... in the middle of the Pacific... just chillin'... like a villian... counting Benjamins... until he is attacked by a giant squid.... never mind the fact that that is most likely to happen in the Atlantic rather than the Pacific.

On a more serious note, I cannot speak for other nations, but most U.S Citizens renounce their citizenship upon emigrating due to not wanting to pay uncle Sam taxes on income earned abroad. Luckily I make so little in Mexico I'm exempt lol.
 
There are also people who live in other countries temporarily for job assignments or the like. These people are indeed very often white, but you can't call them immigrants because their stay has always been planned to be temporary. A lot of the people of the expat category are such.
 
I had some deals in talk for couple of years in UAE and if they had come to fruition I would call myself an "expat" as opposed to "immigrant". Somehow immigrant for me rings a dire need.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top