Why are white people expats when the rest of us are immigrants?
[1] In the lexicon of human migration there are still hierarchical words, created with the purpose of
[2] putting white people above everyone else. One of those remnants is the word “expat”.
[3] What is an expat? And who is an expat? According to Wikipedia, “an expatriate (often shortened to
[4] expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of the person’s upbringing.
[5] The word comes from the Latin terms ex (‘out of’) and patria (‘country, fatherland’)”.
[6] Defined that way, you should expect that any person going to work outside of his or her country for
[7] a period of time would be an expat, regardless of his skin colour or country. But that is not the case in
[8] reality; expat is a term reserved exclusively for western white people going to work abroad.
[9] Africans are immigrants. Arabs are immigrants. Asians are immigrants. However, Europeans are
[10] expats because they can’t be at the same level as other ethnicities. They are superior. Immigrants is a
[11] term set aside for ‘inferior races’.
[12] Don’t take my word for it. The Wall Street Journal, the leading financial information magazine in the
[13] world, has a blog dedicated to the life of expats and recently they featured a story ‘Who is an expat,
[14] anyway?’. Here are the main conclusions: “Some arrivals are described as expats; others as immigrants;
[15] and some simply as migrants. It depends on social class, country of origin and economic status. It’s
[16] strange to hear some people in Hong Kong described as expats, but not others. Anyone with roots in a
[17] western country is considered an expat … Filipino domestic helpers are just guests, even if they’ve been
[18] here for decades. Mandarin-speaking mainland Chinese are rarely regarded as expats. It’s a double standard
[19] woven into official policy.”
[20] The reality is the same in Africa and Europe. Top African professionals going to work in Europe are
[21] not considered expats. They are immigrants. Period.
[22] Most white people deny that they enjoy the privileges of a racist system. And why not? But our
[23] responsibility is to point out and to deny them these privileges, directly related to an outdated supremacist
[24] ideology.
By Mawuna Remarque Koutonin Adapted from: <http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals- network/2015/ mar/13/white-people-expats-immigrantsmigration>. Accessed on September 12th, 2015.
Marque a opção na qual a palavra “Period” (linha 21) é empregada com o mesmo significado do texto.
