I’ll bet you’ve been thinking to yourself: I wonder when Dr. Cline is going to deliver a lecture about rhetoric and the use of the term “expat”? Well, the wait is over!!! Here it is!!!
Yeah, so, do try to stick with me here (and by that I mean: please watch) because the struggle over the connotation of “expat” is important and worth your time to think about if you propose to live outside your native land.
BTW, nothing about this episode is designed to suggest that my way of thinking about this is the best way or the only way. I mean, yes, I’m fairly sure of myself because rhetoric is my academic discipline. But there’s plenty of room for other views.
No tech notes this episode because this is 90 percent stock footage.
#portugal #expat #expatlife #expatlifestyle #immigrants #immigration #portugallovers #americanexpat #documentary #webseries #documentaryfilmmaker #culture #definitions #rhetoric #professor
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My ignorance spoke.
We (portuguese) have the word "expatriado" meaning someone who lives outside his own country…
You position the question as an intelectual reasoning over one word and what is in in and behind it.
But words usually serve or clarify in a particular context.
We express this in portuguese by saying "o português é uma língua muito traiçoeira…".
Almost imperceptible accents on sillables of a word can make it mean the oposite or another meaning.
To understand it correctly comes culture and context.
If not present you just get the "literal" ….
Portuguese working comunities anywhere consider themselves as imigrants. Regardless of speaking the local language.
Even if they are pensioners of the adopted country living in that country they identify as imigrants.
They usually setup clubs or associations with all-things portuguese that assemble 1st,2nd and sometimes 3rd generations.
They only change that status when they get citizenship.
Well-off portuguese living abroad identify themselves as just "entrepeneurs" or "pensioners".
I am not aware of equivalent to "expat" in portuguese.
My "take" on the "expat" based on what i "see" in foreign comunities in Portugal is that expat was "invented" to diferentiate from a perceived negativeness of "emigrant".