Comments on: Who are these expats?

By: Idetrorce

Idetrorce — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 13:38:14 +0000

very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce

By: Agnostic

Agnostic — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 03:21:15 +0000

Ntahn, I just don´t buy it. I´ve never seen an expat in my entire life. I´ve seen your pictures and you look like a regular person to me. You can´t be an expat…

By: exnat

exnat — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 02:42:03 +0000

Hey Coog,

It sounds like you’re defining home not as a place but rather as a feeling. I’m really happy you’re feeling more at home where ever you are

By: Coogie

Coogie — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:32:08 +0000

But, Nate, that sounds a bit like wanting to go back home? Do you want to go back home? Cause I don’t. My home is here. Not because I feel like Argentines are my soulmates and dunno what else, but because I am here.
I used to think a lot about this feeling of having a home or homelessness, but now I think it wasn’t the place, it was just me.
So, for many years Germany was my home, then it was Ireland, now it is Argentina. Even Peru was my home for 2 months. Or maybe they all still ARE my homes. I mean, when I am in a place and I live there and laugh and cry and there’s joy and pain and friends and strangers - where life just happens and I am there, that’s my home. I don’t tend to feel this on holidays, but when I get involved, yes.

By: exnat

exnat — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:57:37 +0000

“Nothing is but thinking makes it so”
-Hamlet

Agonostic,
Well, from a certain point of view nothing exists. However, there is a universe out there and we can choose to chop it up in ways that are useful to us and then give those little bits names. So, we could call expats SALPS (like Coog does) but that doesn’t change the fact that there are certainly people living away from the place with which they primarily identify, their tierra madre.

We definitely exist.

By: Agnostic

Agnostic — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 23:01:07 +0000

I believe that expats don´t exist

By: exnat

exnat — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:53:39 +0000

Hey Coog,

Thanks for the comments. I appreciate your verve. I am certainly not offended by your thoughts and I am thankful for your taking the time to share them.

So, I took a note from you and checked out Dictionary.com and from the best I can understand “to expatriate” is from the latin expatriāre [to banish] which strikes me with a sense of loss and being a stranger/outsider more than a friendly home away from home.

Maybe it’s just a word game but to me home means that you’re claiming to be an insider. You can define home however you want but to the extent that you’re away from home you’re an outsider. My point is that immigrants are redefining where home is while expats are away from home.

By: Coogie

Coogie — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 02:04:22 +0000

Hi, sorry, me again
I just followed your link to the quoted Wiki-article and was surprised to find that the whole article makes perfect sense to me except for this one sentence that you picked out. For the most part it says that expats are simply people who don’t live in their country of upbringing. The Latin origin is exactly what it is in the German translation. And there are several examples in the article of expats that even more undermine the very general meaning of the word.
So if we could just take it for that, there wouldn’t be a problem with people having trouble being called an expat or taking it as a categorization which it just not is.
However, there are no further references to the article in general, so it might just be someone’s idea of what an expat is (at least the cited part sounds a bit like it).
So, I’ve done so much explaining now - ENOUGH!
Just wanted to add that I didn’t mean any offence (cause you sounded a bit offended) with what I wrote - I usually don’t, maybe I’m just not really good at expressing myself, and I really like your blog and think you are a nice person (online at least)

By: Coogie

Coogie — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 01:13:00 +0000

I wrote something weird there “But I think a more neutral definition would be a lot better since a less neutral one gives people more of a chance to categorize people in a way like that, which should be the case, because we are all so different, especially in terms of culture.”
I actually meant a neutral definition would give us more of a chance to be seen as an individual.

By: Coogie

Coogie — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 01:10:19 +0000

Hi Nate, I just wrote a superlong comment and then my pc hung itself up
So, I’ll try again, maybe a bit shorter this time.
I think I didn’t explain myself well.

I was referring to the Wiki-definition that I don’t agree with. To me it sounds like an expat will always be a stranger/outsider in his host country and I don’t think that is the case. I believe that one can identify with great parts of the new country and I don’t see how anybody would not identify with their own culture at the same time. It’s part of everyone’s identity. I totally agree with you when you say “However, all of them fundamentally identify either with their country of origin or some other group independent of the country they live in”. I find that rather natural.

I also don’t agree that immigrants necessarily adopt the culture of the country they live in 100%. We have a huge number of immigrants in Germany (down to 3rd generation by now) and many of them still integrate their own culture in their everyday lives, which I think is a good thing. They are still a fully integrated part of society though.

As for the prejudice: Maya once posted a comment on my blog saying that some people see her as ‘yet another xy who is like yz’, based on the idea of knowing what an expat is. But I think a more neutral definition would be a lot better since a less neutral one gives people more of a chance to categorize people in a way like that, which should be the case, because we are all so different, especially in terms of culture.

I do get your point about friendships, but I think that is also a question of development in immigration in general. I think the more people come to stay and actually do stay, the less locals (and other foreigners) will assume, that expats are only here on a short term base. It’s a learning process, I think.

Personally, living abroad to me has always been an emotional matter, also for that fact that as an immigrant’s daughter I never felt really rooted in Germany. So all I can do is stay in a place where I feel good as a human being, even if I cannot give reasons for that; to me it doesn’t really matter why I feel so well here, I just do. So, yes, to me home totally is where the heart is.
I hope I haven’t misunderstood your post in first place
Have a great weekend, Coog