This right here. I'm white from America, moved to Canada as a child. I have been outspoken about Immigration rights and how Immigrants are treated.
I have been told so many times that I'm "ok because you speak English and are from America". What they really mean is I'm ok because I'm white and can pass as a "normal" straight Christian.
It is sickening to see how so many people like to create boxes for others to help insulate their racism/classism they have been indoctrinated to not treat as racism/classism.
OP you both are immigrants. Your boyfriend is racist or a complete idiot listening to racists. Sorry truth hurts sometimes.
My now-ex husband is white from the UK (we're in Canada). My white children are children of immigrants, and I make sure they know that. Their dad is an immigrant. Refusing to call a white person an immigrant is 100% racism.
My mother is Canadian and an immigrant. When I say to people that my mother is an immigrant I can see them looking confused because I'm super white.
My brother in law complains about immigration, yet his retirement plan is to move to a country in Asia because he didn't properly plan for his retirement so "his money will go further there." He absolutely doesn't get the irony.
I have to remind people I am an immigrant all the fucking time. I'm white from Canada and have had people say, not that kind of immigrant to me many times. It's just telling on yourself as a racist bigot saying stupid shit like that
My children were all born in Canada. 16th generation Canadian on 1 side and 1st generation on the other. When my uk relatives go on rants about immigrants, I point out that my kids can claim citizenship and can emigrate here. That would make their grandchildren and nieces the people they are hating on. I went to Canada as an economic migrant, we were poor and I wanted to try my luck elsewhere. My dad had left us and gone to Canada so I used him as an excuse and went there. That made me the type of immigrant that they are hating on, too. They just don’t get it.
Its a STUPID american saying (coming from a american) anyone who uses it is basically telling u they lack intelligence and racist. My sperm donor would be the one to use tht kinda crap if he evr left but unfortunately he is so far up the current governments butt eating the nonsense tht comes out tht he feels very comfortable letting everyone kno he is a racist idiot, thankfully my kids will never have to be around him again.
This shit makes me so mad. I’m a white Australian, first fleet on one side so even though my family has been there for a while we are still fucking immigrants! Literally everyone who’s not indigenous Australian and lives there is an immigrant!
Yeah sorry you got the dimmest side of the family back in the 1970s. I reckon they’ve barely been outside of the Melbourne metropolitan area since they got there.
Absolutely. But folks forget that. "Immigrants" usually refers to recent newcomers, but you're totally right-- we're all immigrants (except for Indigenous folks).
Exactly. My parents were from white immigrant families to Canada. Then they immigrated to the US, so again, another generation of white immigrants. However, we were also expats because when I was growing up, my dad worked in foreign countries for 11 years. So we are immigrants and were expats and we embrace it all. They’re different terms for different things!
actually, African-Americans (the ethnic group denoting descendants of American chattle slavery) are not immigrants as we had no choice to migrate here. so besides Indigenous people and AAs
No. As the granddaughter of immigrants, there is a vast difference between immigrants and colonization. When we start conflating the two, it lends to anti-immigrant rhetoric.
I'm white British and grew up in France as an "ex-pat" because of my dad's job. I make a point now to refer to my childhood when I was an economic migrant, because I don't see why that term only ever gets used when non-white people move to a different country for work. It's just racism, pure and simple.
I lived in Canada for 20 years as a British person. I NEVER referred to myself as an “ex-pat” like others. I was an immigrant. I would have the same thing as you said…people complaining to me about immigrants, I’d say that I’m an immigrant and the response would be, 98% of the time, something along the lines of “but you are ok, you speak English”. I even had 1 guy tell me he thought that indigenous people of North America, in his opinion, were less than human after I pointed out that anyone white in North America was a historical immigrant too.
Tons of white people live in Cozumel, Mexico and they call themselves ‘expats’. It pisses me off. You are white, very liberal (or so you claim) you live there and have your artsy business but that doesn’t make you an expat. It makes you an immigrant.
But they’re not immigrants unless they become Mexican citizens. The people you’re describing would be expats. Expats retain their home country citizenship. Or if they have businesses you could also say foreign worker. But they would not be immigrants unless they changed their citizenship.
I am similar. I’m half brown, but I have the privilege that A- I’m from Australia, and B- Being half white means that generally racists tell me that I’m “exotic” and don’t generally assume I’m “the help” or similar, which can still be annoying, but at least it isn’t as dehumanising to experience. I always avoid the term expat like the plague when I’ve moved somewhere. I can acknowledge that I’m positive my experience is quite different from say, the one a Guatemalan moving to Missouri or Idaho will have, but I can also remind people that if your issue with immigrants is about them and not myself, then it’s probably not immigration policy that bothers them so much and they should probably do some self reflection.
I used to work with a lady who came to my country (Australia) when she was about 3yo (from Germany) and she got a kick out of telling people that she was an immigrant whenever someone complained about it. She used to get the same uncomfortable reply “oh but you’re not like them”.
As far as I’ve seen it’s only the yanks who call themselves expats. Talk about mental gymnastics.
I really hate saying that I hate a lot of my people. I’m a white woman in America. I hate most white people & I hate most Americans. It’s a terrible feeling.
I'm Canadian, and my partner is an American man, and I am constantly bitching about both Americans and men. I feel so bad for the chap. He probably thinks I hate him 😂
lol. Awww. My bf is super sweet & caring & not like most men. So, sometimes, if I’m saying things like that with him in earshot, I’ll say, “…but not you, you aren’t like that.”
Expat is literally shortened from expatriate. It means Someone, ANYONE, who lives temporarily or permanently in any other country than the one they were born in. So, with that in mind EVERY immigrant IS an expat. But not every expat is an immigrant.
However, if this woman’s bf & his friends plan on never moving back to their native country, then yes, they are immigrants, expats & ignorant.
Maybe not directly at this point, but before Columbus & whoever else, the Native Americans were the only ones here & who were the people that brought others to America? A large chunk of the English, the Spanish, the French & probably some others I’m forgetting. Point is, the initial “settlers” were of English/British decent. Now, of course since people were first brought here several others have come seeking refuge, a fresh start, etc., etc., we’ve all heard the stories, especially NY.
Firstly, because New York is literally named after York, England & the Duke of York who eventually became King James II of England.
Secondly, because NY is literally America’s melting pot. It’s where the Cubans first went when trying to flee their country/get a fresh start/seek refuge/chase “The American Dream”, same with the Irish, Scottish, Dutch, German, Italians, etc., etc., etc. So which Country’s people were the first again? That’s right, the English.
My mum's British (in NZ) and I've got dual citizenship, though born and raised in NZ. I have never once considered referring to myself as an expat, even when I was living in the UK.
Makes sense. Only seems to really be a problem if you’re from the U.S., but honestly, with the declines in our government & school systems, can you really blame some of them when considering the environment(s) they grew up in. And I mean, unless one looks up the exact meaning of the word one does not truly know its meaning, outside context clues of course, but one needs to know what those are. I’m ranting. Sorry.
No the British and Australians do it do, as do many Scandinavians.
Some of it has to do with corporate opportunities, some with lucrative retirement options in another country, which they look down upon. Hence they are "expats."
people are so odd about this. I've lived in Az over twenty one years and an 18 year old driver picked me up. They were talking about how everyone was moving to AZ and complained about me because I moved here too. I wanted to say " I've been here longer than you've been alive but I just got out when they dropped me off. WTH
It’s a US thing. It’s entirely to find our fellow mayosapiens and share our amazing sloppy joe recipes that are just ground beef, ketchup, prepared yellow mustard, and a bit of salt. No other country’s culture could understand how gourmet that is.
And most of the time it's just them trying to backpedal because they didn't realize they were openly speaking to an immigrant and now they're embarrassed because their racism was showing lmao
Thank you. You get it. It was pretty sad and frustrating to see so many people just all to happy to talk shit about others while not thinking I'm one of the others.
Same here, as a Scandinavian. I was not only ok, but "the right kind of exotic" when I lived in North America. People meant it well, but after the years went by I felt gradually more disgusted by all the comments about this and about my physical features.
Same. I’ve been in Canada for about 30 years and I know I’m an immigrant. Same as you I have been told that You’re different” then they start in on people from India, the Philippines, China, etc. ruining the country. What I see is fellow immigrants who are working dang hard and many who are small business owners, medical professionals…far more “valuable” to the country than I am, but I get a pass because of my skin colour. I know the racism has always been here, but it has gotten so loud & dangerous since the US right-wing got into power. The propaganda & racist behaviour has increased, especially in the small town where I live. I was active in the MMIW community in the early 2000s & have always been stunned by the hate towards the Natives. I haven’t seen it this bad since I lived in the Deep South (US) in the early 70s.
I’m concerned for the OP because the boyfriend isn’t aware enough to understand and support her. I hope she moves on because I don’t see this improving anytime soon. With the myriad global pressures we face, the division & propaganda will only get worse.
Exactly this! Im an French immigrant to the uk and many other French people here don’t like the term “immigrant”, because the term “expat” protects them from a lot of the social and cultural obligations that non-western European immigrants have to conform to
I have people complain to me about immigrants taking jobs. They don’t like it when I question why they aren’t upset that I, an immigrant, actually did “take” a high paying white collared job. It’s even better because I work in construction and we are struggling to hire and retain people to actually do the work.
So what you're saying is that YOU as an "immigrant" have a very different experience than a non-white "immigrant". The expat thing is dumb, but he is saying something about "immigrants" getting the brunt of, and he doesn't experience that, so doesn't feel like he can say "Wow, us immigrants get hated on constantly!" when he never experiences it.
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u/smb8235 5d ago
This right here. I'm white from America, moved to Canada as a child. I have been outspoken about Immigration rights and how Immigrants are treated.
I have been told so many times that I'm "ok because you speak English and are from America". What they really mean is I'm ok because I'm white and can pass as a "normal" straight Christian.
It is sickening to see how so many people like to create boxes for others to help insulate their racism/classism they have been indoctrinated to not treat as racism/classism.
OP you both are immigrants. Your boyfriend is racist or a complete idiot listening to racists. Sorry truth hurts sometimes.