tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post3912296661677867140..comments2023-09-23T11:16:00.352+02:00Comments on The Franco-American Flophouse has moved: Overseas Exile U.S. Expat SurveyVictoria FERAUGEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-8873333339145481812013-12-02T10:27:30.402+01:002013-12-02T10:27:30.402+01:00D. Nelson: Wonderful! Thank you. A reader wrote...D. Nelson: Wonderful! Thank you. A reader wrote to me and pointed out that the survey was still lacking in diversity (few retirees, for example). If we could all spread the news - perhaps write or comment on various blogs American migrants frequent - I think that would be very helpful.<br /><br />@Anonymous: Yeah "immigrant" is indeed what we are and yet very few Americans I've met abroad want to use that word. Why is that?Victoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-21098705508232035322013-12-02T04:11:43.347+01:002013-12-02T04:11:43.347+01:00I likewise don't consider myself an expat, I c...I likewise don't consider myself an expat, I consider myself an immigrant. ("Migrant" sounds somehow temporary to my ears.)<br /><br />Thanks for pointing out the survey. Wouldn't have known about it otherwise.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-85033240217422113542013-12-01T09:36:42.829+01:002013-12-01T09:36:42.829+01:00I added it to my facebook page for all my expat fr...I added it to my facebook page for all my expat friendsDL NELSONhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12740409132697546671noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-38405647879544218432013-12-01T09:36:08.086+01:002013-12-01T09:36:08.086+01:00I added it to my facebook page after taking it. Th...I added it to my facebook page after taking it. Thanks for this.DL NELSONhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12740409132697546671noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-18438188603334963072013-11-30T00:12:20.988+01:002013-11-30T00:12:20.988+01:00Patrick, I have the same problem. Expat to me als...Patrick, I have the same problem. Expat to me also implies that you've been sent (and are being supported) in your migration journey by a company or an entity in the home country. When we were in Japan, for example, we were expats working for a French company that paid our way there and back.<br /><br />France is completely different. I've started using the term "migrant" as in "American migrant." It's neutral and it ties us to all the other migrants in the world and that is how it should be, I think. Nothing special about an American in France - just another migrant that came in at the same time as thousands of others from other countries did and got the same treatment and has the same carte de resident.Victoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-28044112279798856232013-11-29T23:11:48.636+01:002013-11-29T23:11:48.636+01:00Responded to the survey. Although I would not use ...Responded to the survey. Although I would not use the term 'expat' to describe myself. Expats (from my perspective) are people who maintain a link with the country of origin whilst 'abroad', and have some notion of 'returning'. I know I will never return to the States (how could you with school-age children not born in the US- wouldn't be fair to them). I feel I have fully assimilated in my adopted country (which I am a naturalised citizen of). I know of no Americans where I live, nor do I seek them out. I haven't voted in the past two US presidential elections and never travel on my soon to expire US passport (won't be applying for another one- can't take the chance with everything going on now). Very happy living a British life. What would be a better term? 'American emigrant'? 'Ex-American'?Patricknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-18045461484204610872013-11-28T22:49:34.597+01:002013-11-28T22:49:34.597+01:00Good point, Broken Man, but look at the French com...Good point, Broken Man, but look at the French community in the US (the subject of my next post). Similar issues. Does the French government really know how many French there are in the US or the world? Nope. But that doesn't stop them from trying to find out *something* about these folks. Remember, for a survey it's not about counting - it's just about learning about the community abroad.<br /><br />And thank you for the book recommendation. It's going straight on my to-read list.Victoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-54080800628155088352013-11-28T16:13:14.876+01:002013-11-28T16:13:14.876+01:00"Ain't rocket science, guys."
I can..."Ain't rocket science, guys."<br /><br />I can see how it would seem that way in European countries with a well-established, distinct American expatriate community (France, Italy, Switzerland) but the problems noted earlier are still very challenging, see <br /><br />- http://thefranco-americanflophouse.blogspot.ca/2013/11/flophouse-american-diaspora-reading-list.html from "There are thousands"<br />- http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2424131704277823220&postID=6938837528511024850 comment 2<br /><br />The problem is that US citizenship is legally quite clear but in practice comes in shades of grey in a way that makes a statistically defensible count more or less impossible. (A not untypical example of the paler end of the shades: a co-worker who recently realized that she was actually a USC under US law - given the whole tax thing, she was kind of horrified. She's certainly not going to get a SSN and a passport.) <br /><br />Probably the best available way of counting high-committment USCs abroad is to mine existing passport data. <br /><br />Also 'Americans abroad' are not in many cases the same thing as 'expatriates': I was born and raised and have always lived in south-central Ontario, which didn't stop me from asserting a derivative claim to US citizenship, getting a US passport - only used for crossing the border, I used the Canadian passport for everything else - voting in Massachusetts and finally renouncing when the tax thing became an obstructive nuisance. If I hadn't stuck my hand up, how would any U.S. census possibly have found me. <br /><br /> - An unrelated note: if you're putting together reading lists on citizenship and identity, I'd recommend Jacques Poitras' book on the Maine-New Brunswick border (http://www.amazon.ca/Imaginary-Line-Life-Unfinished-Border/dp/0864926502/). In some ways it's a counterpoint to the rest of the books on your lists, having to do with the imposition of a border on a settled region, rather than voluntary expatriation and its consequences. A broken man on a Halifax piernoreply@blogger.com