Laurence Dollimore
AN overwhelming majority of our readers are NOT offended by the term ‘expat’.
That’s the result of our online poll which asked ‘Do you find the use of the word ‘expat’ to describe British and foreign nationals living in Spain offensive?’
The vote came after a barrage of emails to the newsdesk complained of the Olive Press’ use of the word, requesting that it be switched out for ‘resident’ or ‘immigrant’.
However a snapshot of our readers’ opinions revealed that two thirds were not bothered by the term.
On our Facebook poll, there were 951 votes.
Out of those, 74% said they were not offended by the term while 26% said they were.
The results were repeated on Twitter, where 68% votes said they did not find the term offensive.
For me as a non-English immigrant, the ‘ex’ in expat reminds me of Br-ex-it, which is still pending. So for me ‘expat’ as a synonym for British foreigners will be ok. Regarding all other kinds of immigrants, I prefer the word ‘alien’. This reminds my fellow Spanish citizens, that I may be a member of another universe.
While I agree in general with the result of the vote, I am not convinced by the method. Being a rather old man, I don’t use Facebook nor Twitter. Therefor I suppose that my age group had been underrepresented in this poll.
What’s the fuss? An Expat (short for expatriate) is someone who lives in another country. An immigrant is someone who intends to do so indefinitely. There are several types of expat, someone whose work has taken them abroad, or a person caring for a sick friend or relative, for example. An immigrant would be aiming for and, eventually attaining nationality of the host country.
Extremely well put…
I’ve been an expat for 19 years and am also an immigrant… Happy being called either…
Even occasionally ‘guiri’