My Story: Identity Crisis By Christopher Hanson I am suffering from an identity crisis. Some will think I came to Portugal to simply get away from Trump’s America. Others think I have come to “find myself” or “reinvent myself in my retirement years.” Some (including my bride, who likely knows me best) think I just bailed on the US Rat-Race for a loooooooooong vacation. All of them may be right. Be that what it is, it does beg a question: How do I describe myself here, in Portugal (other than as an “Attorney in Recovery” or a “Drunken Sailor Washed Upon a Foreign Shore”)? There are all kinds of people out there who have opinions on how to describe the situation we find ourselves in. For some, the term “expat” is how I should think of myself. They use the Wikipedia definition: An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of the person’s upbringing. The word comes from the Latin terms ex (‘out of’) and patria (‘country, fatherland’).
So, with that definition, are Guatemalan maids temporarily working abroad expats? Yes, they are. Are Indian construction workers in Singapore that you see on construction sites expats? Yes, they are too. A recent BBC article stated that: A business expatriate is a *legally* working individual who resides *temporarily* in a country of which they are not a citizen, in order to accomplish a career-related goal (no matter the pay or skill level)—someone who has relocated abroad either by an organization, by themselves, or been directly employed by their host country. They go home when they’ve completed their assignment. “Immigrants” are people who move to a country they are not a citizen of, with the intention to stay there permanently and legally.
Most tinker with that definition to change the word “residing” to “working.” With that change, you should expect that any person going to work outside of his or her country for a period of time would be an expat, regardless of his skin color or her country or origin. Not so, it seems: Apparently, “expat” is a term reserved exclusively for western white people going to work abroad.
“Migrants” are defined as people who intend to go and live in a county for a short or long time—whatsoever.
Africans, it seems, are immigrants. Arabs are immigrants. Asians are immigrants. But Europeans (and Americans) are expats because they can’t (apparently) be at the same level as other ethnicities. They are thought of as superior. “Immigrant” is a term set aside for “inferior races.”
I have repatriated, voluntarily returned to “my country” (or the country of my family), for a better life than I found living in the USA.
Don’t take my word for it. The Wall Street Journal, a leading financial information periodical worldwide, has a blog dedicated to the life of expats … and, recently, featured a story: “Who is an expat, anyway?” Here are the main conclusions: “Some arrivals are described as expats; others as immigrants; and some simply as migrants. It depends upon social class, country of origin, and economic status. “Immigrants” usually are defined as people who have come to a different country in order to live there permanently, whereas expats move abroad for a limited amount of time or have not yet decided upon the length of their stay.” 60 Portugal Living Magazine
So, what the hell am I? I am a citizen of Portugal. My grandparents left Portugal to go to the USA “for a better life.”
I am not an expat. I’m not an immigrant. I’m not a migrant. I’m a man with(out) two (a) countr(y)ies. I would have liked to identify as “American” … but the America I grew up with and once respected has turned into nothing more than a Shit-Hole Country run by Nationalist Republicans and a Christian Theocracy. (Or, it’s looking more and more like that to me ...) So, do I identify now as Portuguese? No. It’s too soon for that. I’m still a stranger in a strange land. Thus, my Identity Crisis. And what brought all this on?
