Expatriate Games link to article in Guardian
What’s in a name? Are you an expat? French resident? Immigrant?
I don’t like the term expat, I see myself as a British national resident overseas…Brittanique in the eyes of our Mairie. What will our children be? They were born in France but are British nationality, to call them expats seems silly.
We are of course immigrants but that does sound derogatory in some way, perhaps because of the way the media portrays immigration. Are we emmigrants then?
Most people I have the experience encountering call you European. Which means that you for them are not French but not really so much an immigrant since you are in the Federation. But that is how I hear the French calling the Brits and other EU nationals.
quite agree!
I agree with the idea of expats being people who don’t necessarily speak the language or mix with the locals - I’m English, British but perhaps most of all European (but I don’t feel like an expat and I’ve never said I am one). Going back to the nationality thing/immigrant/emigrant - we’re all such a mix of peoples and origins, that’s part of the fun of living abroad - when I was in Brittany, the joke was that the Bretons are more “British” than me - their ancestors were in Blighty way before before mine left Normandy to take over the show! Although I have to admit I did feel more English/British than normal today when I saw the news this evening…
I couldn’t agree with Suzanne more. I’ve had this very odd experience at dinner parties where people go on about immigrants and I kinda wave my hand and point out that, hey folks, I’m an immigrant too. And the answer I usually get is, “we’re not talking about you.” Okay then, who exactly are you talking about?
Hey, I’m human and and I’d LOVE to be special and an ugly part of my ego would like to have the French think favorably of me (certainly helps in the job hunt) and put me in a “good” category. But that would not only be intellectually dishonest but, in my view, makes me complicit in the ugly anti-immigrant, sometimes outrageously racist rhetoric I sometimes hear in my country of adoption and my country of origin. So I’m going proudly own the word “immigrant” and if anyone has a problem with it I’ll slap them over the head with my carte de sejour until they see the light. 
and I changed Emigrant to Emmigrant in my text because I thought Stephen’s spelling must be the correct spelling…!!!
which phrase?
Me too!
Who are we to argue with your expert opinion?
I see your point Fiona, it’s not so much fear of being ‘tarred’ as I’m not worried about that, I suppose the word has a negative conotation and I tend to avoid negativity. In factual terms we are immigrants and you are right that the only way to change this (by not compounding the problem) is to use the term immigrant freely and positively. So rightly, immigrants we are. Now - how to cope with the term expat - any ideas…I’m still picturing jugs of sangria, England t-shirts and lobster red fat sunburnt bald heads…can you help turn that one round in my head?
profiting from being in theUK, we had exactly that for breakfast this morning Fiona - as my 2 year old said - yummy!
I did try making them when we were in France but they weren’t very successful…must try harder!
I’ll try not to think of Stephen’s phrase - not sure how you would know that Stephen !)
true, but emmigrant doesn’t somehow sound as derogatory as immigrant. Weird and yes I agree about the racism in France - it exists here just like it exists elsewhere. I hope that my children will grow up European and tolerant of all backgrounds & cultures without racism…oh the ideal world…
@ Stephen - did you click on the blue Expatriate Games?
What did Stephen call Marmite…?