I hang out a quite a bit with American expats like myself, almost all of whom are teaching English.
Once a long time ago, someone asked why people never call Western expatriates immigrants. And while that was a deeply thought-provoking question, there are indeed profound differences. Subjective differences that lie in intention rather than circumstance. (Or maybe not, since class is so central.) I still wondered if I knew what they were.
My first weekend, I met a few college grads the night after they had a training exam for their positions. The ones who failed would go home. And while most passed, the ones who went home would return to their parents' homes and places that don't hire anyone anywhere, not even the fast food chains. Some people come here to Seoul because of this. Because they can save and go back and maybe pay rent for a year while looking for jobs.
My second weekend, I met a man who would leave following week. I asked him what he'd do back in the States. He shrugged his big tattooed shoulders. "Seoul is great," he said. And I wondered in what way, since earlier in that day he was talking shit about the guy with the grin on his face charging 2500 for bottled water. Why if so much distrust?
That day, I met a man who came to visit his former colleague, who is now teaching adults. They used to work at a company that gives financial advice lectures to retired folks around the country. "There were months at a time when she would not have any gigs. For her, it was like being paid to sit around, but that's not her. She had to do something." Enough said.
And when the sun went down, I went to Hongdae, near Honggik University. I remember it like it was the LES, but on crack. A lot of college students starting their year. But also a lot of foreign faces. A lot of plastered faces. Some European accents. A lot of twenty-something white folks in their going out clothes and heels.
In the cab home that night, I talked to another recent grad who used to study philosophy. She said that there were only two things she really wanted to do after college - community/labor organizing or teaching kindergarten. Her current job is far from those things. "I had to really reconcile that before coming here. What I was adding to." She works for a publicly traded corporation that charges middle class families exorbitant amounts to learn English afterschool.
But ultimately, there is money here. I'll talk about that soon, since I seem to be in the middle of much of it...
i always wondered about the expats vs immigrant thing myself... i found it odd that europeans/americans coming to my country to work were "expats," while my sister's in-laws leaving to work in the USA warrants them becoming "immigrants." legal nomenclature, or a wider global class issue... i'm *technically* an expat for now as far as my legal status, but that may change in the future. i wonder if working abroad for a company based in your home country makes a difference.
ReplyDeleteI brought this up in a class once, and the professor basically shut me down before I'd even finished my question. He claimed that people who call themselves expats are simply unwilling to take on the class connotations of 'immigrant' or 'migrant'. When I said something about intention and contracts, he "reminded" me that just about every immigrant plans on returning home, and that the Canadian 'expat' in Thailand is as much of a migrant as any other non-patriate worker.
ReplyDeleteexcept there is a difference, or there are differences among the millions of people who move and work outside the borders (state, region, whatever) of their place of birth/origin. as i think you suggest, i'd agree that class - not nationality - is the issue. people who work for citi/other banks, or foreign embassies, or oil companies, or other multinations, all fall under the title of 'expat'. domestic workers and people doing other types of physical labour are not included within that heading. expats - at least as the term is used today, i don't know about the 70s/80s - have privileges of passport and/or visa status that other foreign workers often don't have.
but then there's this -- who employs these different migrant workers? citibank and BP employees, un people, and embassy staff all have an employer that is not of their 'host' country. in my (simple) mind, that is what makes the difference. if you work for a multinational whatever, you can't really stay in the country you're working in. you have to go "back". (Mena, I think this is what you're talking about? i think working abroad for a company based in your home country - or any *other* country than than host country - is exactly what makes the difference in label. an expat is expected - even contractually obligated - to return 'home' in a way other migrants aren't.)
which isn't to say that the use of the term isn't dumb, and an american teacher working in an egyptian school won't be called an expat by members of the expat community -- because s/he will be, perhaps to his or her chagrin. that labelling, i think, has to do with (a problematic?) expectation of return closely related to global flows of labour/population.