I called myself an immigrant once in casual conversation. The people I was talking with -- who, ironically, would almost certainly describe themselves as pro-immigrant -- blew up at me for "appropriating the immigrant experience."
I'd interpret it to mean "White men don't get to claim minority group status!" (I understand there exist political worldviews under which membership in a minority group is occasionally a useful thing to have and under which "inappropriately" claiming it is anathema, but to be clear, I wasn't intentionally trying to troll anyone with the observation.)
I did some contracting work for a company in Vienna for about 5 weeks. (I am a US citizen living Sweden.) I stayed in a business apartment. I mentioned the name of the area to one of the employees at the company. He commented that I might not like it because there are a lot of immigrants. I pointed out that I should fit in then, since I'm an immigrant.
In this context, I knew that he meant "immigrant" as shorthand for "cultural minorities" (in this case, mostly from the Middle East), and I was being deliberately naive to help prevent expropriating the term "immigrant" in that fashion.
Imagine someone with ginger hair saying "Oh it's just like being gay and being bullied for who you are". That person is trying to claim that they have it just as bad as groups who have it bad. I suspect the person thought patio11 was claiming to be suffering horrible hardship due to being an immigrant
Now, patio11 is an immigrant/expat (being a USAian living in Japan), and who knows perhaps in Japan there are disadvantages/hurdles by looking like a white dude. So I have no idea if it was/is right for someone to say that to him.
I'll scratch it up to American social justice warriors having the common mistake of thinking everything is like the USA.
It kind of reinforces the fact that the distinction between "immigrants" and "expats" is largely income-based. It reminds me of the great animated film "Persepolis". When discussing leaving Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, the father of the main character replies to his wife "So that you can be a housemaid and me a taxi driver?" (they're both middle-class). If they left, they would be become immigrants. On the other hand, somebody in the western world from the middle-class migrating from one location to the other would expect to retain their social status and find an equivalent job. This kind of difference is pretty sad.
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I called myself an immigrant once in casual conversation. The people I was talking with -- who, ironically, would almost certainly describe themselves as pro-immigrant -- blew up at me for "appropriating the immigrant experience."
What does that even mean?
I'd interpret it to mean "White men don't get to claim minority group status!" (I understand there exist political worldviews under which membership in a minority group is occasionally a useful thing to have and under which "inappropriately" claiming it is anathema, but to be clear, I wasn't intentionally trying to troll anyone with the observation.)
I did some contracting work for a company in Vienna for about 5 weeks. (I am a US citizen living Sweden.) I stayed in a business apartment. I mentioned the name of the area to one of the employees at the company. He commented that I might not like it because there are a lot of immigrants. I pointed out that I should fit in then, since I'm an immigrant.
In this context, I knew that he meant "immigrant" as shorthand for "cultural minorities" (in this case, mostly from the Middle East), and I was being deliberately naive to help prevent expropriating the term "immigrant" in that fashion.
Imagine someone with ginger hair saying "Oh it's just like being gay and being bullied for who you are". That person is trying to claim that they have it just as bad as groups who have it bad. I suspect the person thought patio11 was claiming to be suffering horrible hardship due to being an immigrant
Now, patio11 is an immigrant/expat (being a USAian living in Japan), and who knows perhaps in Japan there are disadvantages/hurdles by looking like a white dude. So I have no idea if it was/is right for someone to say that to him.
I'll scratch it up to American social justice warriors having the common mistake of thinking everything is like the USA.
It kind of reinforces the fact that the distinction between "immigrants" and "expats" is largely income-based. It reminds me of the great animated film "Persepolis". When discussing leaving Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, the father of the main character replies to his wife "So that you can be a housemaid and me a taxi driver?" (they're both middle-class). If they left, they would be become immigrants. On the other hand, somebody in the western world from the middle-class migrating from one location to the other would expect to retain their social status and find an equivalent job. This kind of difference is pretty sad.