Beyond Dictionary Definitions: Expat or Immigrant

Most foreigners living in Germany or other countries are faced sooner or later with the question: Am I an expat or an immigrant?

At first glance it may seem to be a superficial matter of dictionary definitions. But for many people it’s not that simple. As with most words, the connotations and context around a term impact its meaning. We are thus forced to move beyond the dictionary definition and enter the realm of semantics.

se•man•tics n. pl. (1893) 1. the study of meanings; 2. the branch of linguistics concerned with the nature, the structure, and the development and changes of the meanings of speech forms, or with contextual meaning; 3. (semiotics) the relationships between signs and symbols and the concepts, feelings, etc. associated with them in the minds of their interpreters; connotative/notional meaning

In researching this topic, I looked at many first-hand accounts in blogs by expats (or immigrants) around the globe. One thing soon became clear to me: Even the expats/immigrants themselves do not agree on which term they prefer.

Most expats become familiar with international airports such as this one in Munich (MUC). PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

What do dictionaries and Wikipedia say?

Expatriate (Expat)
This noun, sometimes seen misspelled online as “expatriot” (a nonword that would mean a former patriot), is defined as a person who is living outside their native country. Derived in the 18th century from the French verb expatrier, meaning to banish or exile, the verb “to expatriate” retains that definition. But the noun has a different meaning today. Expats now voluntarily move to a foreign country, and the word has the connotation that the person might later return to their country of origin, or at least has that option.

Wikipedia: “An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person residing in a country other than their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either independently or sent abroad by their employers, which can be companies, universities, governments, or non-governmental organizations. However, the term ‘expatriate’ is also used for retirees and others who have chosen to live outside their native country. Historically, it has also referred to exiles.”

Immigrant and Migrant
Immigrant (from Latin immigrare, to wander, move away to) refers to a person who leaves their homeland to go to another country in order to reside there permanently, and perhaps even to gain citizenship. In most cases, an immigrant is making a permanent change in residency, usually legally and with no intention of returning to the country of origin. Historically, many Americans, Canadians, and Latin Americans (Argentina, Chile, etc.) refer to their European ancestors as immigrants – people who were looking for a better life in a new country, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The shorter term “migrant” is different. A migrant is more often a person who moves regularly across a border to find work, especially for seasonal crop harvesting or doing construction work. A migrant can also be a refugee fleeing a poor economy in their homeland for better opportunity in another country, as with African migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, or Mexican and Central American people trying to enter the United States. Unlike immigrants, who usually move across borders legally, a migrant may or may not have legal status. When they have had legal status, such migrants historically were called “guest workers” (Turkish Gastarbeiter in Germany, or Mexican braceros in the US).

Related words: émigré (borrowed from French), refugee (a legal term in international law).

Famous Expats in Germany with a US Background

I don’t know what they choose to call themselves. I doubt that they spend much time concerned about whether to label themselves expats or immigrants (or both), but let’s look at three US-Americans (US-Amerikaner*innen) who are much better known in Germany than in the land of their birth.

The cover of Tuft’s AMERICAN WOMAN (2017).

Of the three, two are African Americans. All three are in the entertainment field to one degree or another. But ladies first: Gayle Tufts (b. 1960), is by far the most famous of the three Americans. Massachusetts-born Tufts has made a career in Germany based on her American accent in German. She started out as a background singer in Germany, but she is multitalented. She frequently appears on stage, on radio and TV (see below), and has written five humorous books (in German or her trademark “Dinglish”). If you do an online search for “Gayle Tufts,” the results are almost only in German. (Even her Wikipedia page is only in German.) She grew up and went to college in the USA. She first set foot in Germany in 1984 in her mid-20s. She settled permanently in Berlin in 1991. Her first book, Absolutely Unterwegs – eine Amerikanerin in Berlin was published in 1998 by the Ullstein Verlag. Her latest book is American Woman: How I lost my Heimat und found my Zuhause (2017). Both books are in Tuft’s unique mix of German and English.

Not only does Gayle Tufts not try to hide or ignore her American roots, she glories in her US background and makes a good living from it. She has been in Germany for decades, has a husband (“the Bremer”), and became a German citizen in 2017 (thanks in part to Donald Trump), but remains very American – almost to extremes, but it works for her.

Ron Williams (b. 1942) has been in Germany since around the year Gayle Tufts was born. He is an Afro American born in Oakland, California. He credits his time at Oakland Tech (and its ROTC program) with helping rescue him from a troubled childhood. That and an uncle who was more like a father. Williams went to Germany as a GI, and got his start as an announcer for AFN (Armed Forces Network) in Stuttgart in the 1960s. Like Tufts, Ron Williams developed into a musician and performer who speaks fluent German. He now resides in Munich and has raised his two adult children in Germany. Part of his first stage work in Germany was as Hud in the Munich production of “Hair,” performing with Donna Summer (1948-2012), who has her own German connection as Donna Gaines).

As an Afro American living in Bavaria, Williams has impersonated famous Afro Americans on stage, including Martin Luther King Jr., Ray Charles, and Nelson Mandela. Ironically, Williams lives on a street in Munich named Lüderitzstraße. Lüderitz was one of the German commanders in German South West Africa (now Namibia) who conducted atrocities against the native Africans. Ron Williams has long been a crusader in Germany promoting racial equality and understanding. In 2004 the German president honored Williams with the Bundesverdienstkreuz (German Federal Order/Cross of Merit) for his engagement in German schools against racism. Now in his late 70s, Williams continues to appear on stage, on German TV, and he still tours. Before its recent cancellation, Williams was playing a Black character in Lindenstraße, one of Germany’s most popular and long-running soap operas.

Bruce Darnell (b. 1957) also first came to Germany as a GI in the 1970s. The African American former paratrooper returned in 1983 to develop a successful fashion modeling career and then become a well-known TV personality in Germany. His broken German (“Das ist der Wahrheit.”) with a strong American accent became a trademark that he later used in German TV commercials for the clothing chain C&A and the wireless provider O2. For a time, starting in 2006, Darnell was a juror on Heidi Klum’s “Germany’s Next Topmodel.” In 2008 the openly gay Darnell published a bestselling book entitled Drama, Baby, Drama! Wie Sie werden, was Sie sind (“…How you become what you are”), with styling and self-improvement advice. He actually lives in a German enclave community in the Netherlands near the German border.

Migrationshintergrund
Are these three people immigrants? Yes. Are they expats? Yes. I don’t see their ethnicity playing a role in what they choose to call themselves, or what others may call them. Do they fit the German label of Personen mit Migrationshintergrund (persons with a migrant background)? This official designation is used by the Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (BAMF, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees) to apply to one in four German residents (25.5%). In 2018, according to BAMF data, most of these immigrants came from Romania (238,824), Poland (146,209), Bulgaria (81,793), and Italy (64,852). Only 31,699 came from the USA, just slightly more than those from India, Greece, and Syria. All of these increased compared to 2017.

But when Germans hear “mit Migrationshintergrund,” do they think of the USA, Australia, or the UK? While technically “mit Migrationshintergrund” includes any non-German country of origin, including the USA or the UK, I don’t think the average German considers Americans, Brits, or Aussies part of that category. I strongly doubt that most American, British, and other Anglophone expats would identify with the “migrant background” label, no matter the color of their skin.

What do you think of when you hear the word “migrant” in English? Migrant workers? Migrants rescued in the Mediterranean? Refugees? Should it be that way? Probably not, but migrant is not the same as immigrant.

Black Expats
There is a website called theblackexpat.com. The Black Expat proudly displays the heading “Black Identity + International Living” – and why shouldn’t they? A recent article has the title No Apologies: Black Hair and Boardrooms Abroad (written by Aisha Adkins). Lené Green, a Black lady from Bermuda, writes about her first exchange experience in Venezuela. I had to laugh when I read: “When I didn’t speak Spanish, I was assumed to be American or Caribbean. As soon as I learned Spanish, I was assumed to be the maid. I got more respect before I learned Spanish.” She writes about the positive and negative aspects of expat life. Later she decided to study at York University in Toronto, Canada, and later at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. After two years working in Amsterdam, Green was ready for a “career shift.” Another line that caught my eye: “Specifically, she was interested in dispelling the myth that the term ‘expat’ refers to old, white men.” She launched her own boutique expat consulting business – Take Flight (now part of The Goal Standard). Green then relocated to Singapore and its banking/finance business culture. In the time of Covid-19, she is now in Japan with her husband.

One of my takeaways from Green’s Black expat tale is that education matters far more than race in how we are perceived and how others perceive us – expat or otherwise. And she is not the only person of color to identify as an expat.

Many expats in Germany know exactly where this is. The European Central Bank tower seen from a bridge over the Main river. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

Myths About the Terms “Expat” and “Immigrant”

In my research for this post, I discovered what I consider to be myths about both the terms “expat” and “immigrant.” If you’re going to get uptight about the proper term for yourself and others, at least give it some serious thought, and don’t get trapped in false assumptions. Many labels take on certain colorings and connotations only if we let them. Here are a few myths (with rebuttals) I’ve identified:

• An expat is a person who arrives in a new country with little or no intention of understanding its people, culture, or language. (Many expats integrate well. Some don’t. Identifying as an expat, an immigrant, or neither has never kept an asshole from still being an asshole.)
• “Expat” is a basically racist term that discriminates against people of color and/or manual laborers. (See the following myth.)
• White people should not call themselves expats. (This sounds even more absurd if you substitute Black or Brown for White.)
• Expat and immigrant are mutually exclusive terms. (They are not. You can be both at the same time.)
• Only White people can call themselves expats. (This is as racist as the myth above: White people should not call themselves expats. The infamous Guardian article is wrong in my opinion. More below.)
• The term “expat” has connotations of Whiteness and elitism. (Only if you let it. The word simply means that you are no longer living in your country of origin.)
• Whether you take on German (or other) citizenship determines whether you are an expat or an immigrant. (Citizenship is not a criterion at all. Many immigrants/expats live in their adopted country for decades without becoming a citizen of that foreign country. Some do become citizens, but that has nothing to do with identifying as an expat or immigrant.)

No, I am NOT saying that there is no racism or prejudice connected to the terms expat, immigrant, migrant, refugee, etc. But just because some people brand a term racist or “wrong,” doesn’t mean we have to accept that. Meanings change. Originally, in the 1700s, an expatriate was someone exiled or banished from his home country. It can still be used that way as a verb (to expatriate someone), or apply to persons who renounce their citizenship and end their US resident status for federal tax purposes. But I refuse to fall into the trap of accepting false racist connotations for terms that can be neutral. I refuse to let people’s prejudices dictate what words I can use – unless of course they are universally perceived as racist, and the people they apply to object to them (e.g., the N-word).

Another factor to consider: history. Not that long ago there was a time when it was fairly rare for people to move overseas for work, and it was much more isolating. (No email! No mobile phones. No video conferencing.) In the 1960s or ’70s, an expat was usually a White man (rarely a woman) sent overseas by his company. There were also at that time some expat communities (mostly Anglophone Whites) in “colonial” locales such as Hong Kong, Singapore, or the Persian Gulf that regarded themselves as apart from and above the native population, and earned more than most of the locals. Some of that still exists, but it has become much more rare. Being an expat today is far less company connected and directed. In any case, being an expat today is no longer so rare and exclusive. And the word expat today no longer carries the baggage it once did. At least it shouldn’t.

Mariam, the Brown, Muslim, Female Expat

I’m going to close with some thoughts from Mariam, a female Pakistani expat who wrote a blog post entitled I’m an Expat, Not an Immigrant – How to Redefine the Meaning of an Expat. Her 2017 post struck me as a defiant shoutout for making up your own mind about what to call yourself. Mariam writes from Dubai, but she has been an expat in many places. Feel free to read her post in its entirety, but here are a few highlights:

“The number one question I get asked is ‘why do you call yourself an expat and not an immigrant?'” She goes on to say:

“First, let me explain exactly what kind of an expat I am.

I’m a brown expat.
I’m a Muslim expat.
I’m a ‘I come from a third world, developing country in Asia’ kind of expat.
I’m a female expat.
I’m a child of former expats.
I’m a long-term expat.

In short, I am anything but the kind of white, Caucasian, European expats referred to in the famous Guardian article…”

But, Mariam writes, she understands why some people have a problem with the word expat, a term that is “…tied to privilege, race, nationality and status. It reeks of a colonial legacy and imperialism.” The word has developed an image problem, she writes. (Also see my comments about history above.) She wants us to redefine and expand the meaning of the word “expat” and make it more inclusive, not less. Mariam concludes with these words: “And this is where my privilege comes in – as a writer and as an expat – to fight for the change that I hope to see and to speak up for those who can’t.”

I like this kind of attitude. Don’t just accept what others may say. Feel free to call yourself an expat, an immigrant, or both. I’m not going to tell you which term to use. What’s in your soul? How you see yourself? That’s what matters. Don’t let people dictate how you identify as a person living in a foreign country. The people mentioned above have made their own choices. You should, too.

– HF