Synonyms for immigrants not in the dictionary

September 14, 2009 11:02 PM

I am looking for terms other than "immigrants" to refer to people that move from one country to another (preferably used by governments, NGOs or social service agencies). In Canada they are often called "Newcomers" or "New Canadians". I have just discovered "BME" is in use in the UK along similar lines. I have no interest in regional insulting terms however, as this is for keyword searching in journals.
posted by saucysault to Writing & Language (27 answers total)

aliens
posted by bitdamaged at 11:05 PM on September 14, 2009

Expatriate
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:06 PM on September 14, 2009

expatriates is an obvious one though I don't know if it is used by the people you are asking about. While it has negative connotations aliens is used in some legal contexts (legal-, resident-, illegal-...)
posted by nanojath at 11:08 PM on September 14, 2009

Holy preview batman.
posted by nanojath at 11:08 PM on September 14, 2009

Best answer: In Australia, immigrants in the situation you describe might also be referred to in the literature as "recent migrants" or "recently arrived migrants".
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 11:14 PM on September 14, 2009

Newcomers?
posted by unknowncommand at 11:31 PM on September 14, 2009

Best answer: In Israel immigrants are "olim" - literally, "people who have gone up," derived from the idea that Israel is on a higher (spiritual) plane.
posted by needs more cowbell at 11:35 PM on September 14, 2009

emigrant? You immigrate to your new country, but emigrate from your old one.
posted by sbutler at 11:40 PM on September 14, 2009

Expatriates are more commonly referred to (at least in-country) as "expats" - I'm one, in Kenya. Its kind of a catch-all for citizens of any other country who happen to live here for one reason or another.
posted by allkindsoftime at 12:13 AM on September 15, 2009

Best answer: In the UK the terms would be immigrant or migrant: I used to work in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, as the UK Borders Agency used to be called, and I can't think of another catch-all term that was used. It tended to be that groups were also given more specific descriptions according to immigration status, eg refugee, asylum-seeker, overstayer, etc.

Also worth pointing out that BME does not mean immigrant in the UK - it is a description of ethnicity, not immigration status, so while some immigrants will be from BME communities, by no means all will. Equally some people whose families have been British citizens for generations will be from a BME background.
posted by greycap at 12:14 AM on September 15, 2009

émigré or exile
posted by cmonkey at 1:04 AM on September 15, 2009

Yeah, seconding 'BME' as a technical term used in diversity work, it means 'Black and Minority Ethnic' and has nothing to do with immigrant status.
posted by Happy Dave at 1:37 AM on September 15, 2009

Best answer: In the Netherlands, there is allochtoon (plural allochtonen). As far as I know, it's not necessarily insulting, but of course some people try to use it that way.
posted by transporter accident amy at 1:51 AM on September 15, 2009

Best answer: Seconding that BME refers to ethnicity, not migration status. In Australia the equivalent term for that is the rather clumsy CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) - it's pretty much only used by state and local governments and socials service NGOs. Migrants are just migrants, perhaps with immigrants, refugees (people with valid claims to refugee status) and asylum seekers (people who cross borders to ask for refugee status) as sub-groups.
posted by embrangled at 2:54 AM on September 15, 2009

Best answer: 'Migrant workers' (pdf) is a term that's sometimes used in the UK, including the government as seen in the link. 'Incomers' is another term occasionally used, but that more often tends to refer to any non-locals (including fellow nationals) in a small community, so it may throw up more chaff than wheat.
posted by Jakey at 2:54 AM on September 15, 2009

you will want a lot of keywords, some of them more specific to type of immigrant as you will get general info from specific

so:

* migrants e.g. economic migrants
displaced persons
refugees
asylum seekers
documented
undocumented
with status
without status
posted by By The Grace of God at 3:48 AM on September 15, 2009

Best answer: I've always loved how if you are from a rich country and you go to another for work you are an expat, but if you are from a poor one you are a migrant or alien.

Anyway, to answer your question:

resident (as in permanent resident)
come to
laowai (or waiguoren)
posted by Pollomacho at 5:06 AM on September 15, 2009

Best answer: When my mother worked for a non-profit in the US helping mainly people from the former USSR find jobs, learn English, get drivers licenses, she always referred to her clients as New Americans.

I will give her a call sometime today to find out additional technical terms and so she can catch me up on her former clients.
posted by sciencegeek at 5:10 AM on September 15, 2009

Best answer: In medical and public health research, one common terminology is "native-born" and "foreign-born." Here's a google scholar search for the term 'foreign-born' to show you some examples.
posted by googly at 5:38 AM on September 15, 2009

"Fresh off the Boat" would probably fit under insulting, but putting it through Google Scholar I get hits for what look like some legitimate sources.
posted by Midnight Rambler at 5:46 AM on September 15, 2009

Response by poster: Thank you to all that answered (even those suggestions that are already in the dictionary ~wink~). I do know that BME isn't a direct synonym but the overlap between the two groups is enough that learning the term last night revealed a lot of sources about migrant groups I would not have found otherwise. Thanks again to all that answered and feel free to add more. You serve the greater good of more research for me to read!
posted by saucysault at 6:05 AM on September 15, 2009

Best answer: In Ireland it's typically "foreign nationals" or (occasionally) "The New Irish".
posted by nfg at 8:56 AM on September 15, 2009

Gastarbeiter, comes from German "guest worker" and is in current usage in Russia. Don't know if it's current in Germany. I'm also not sure if it's inherently pejorative or not, but it doesn't have good connotations here.
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 11:13 AM on September 15, 2009

Guest workers are generally non-immigrants.
posted by Pollomacho at 11:19 AM on September 15, 2009

Third-country nationals is used in EU immigration laws.
posted by juva at 12:28 PM on September 15, 2009

TCN in immigration parlance refers to people who are citizens or nationals of another country (say France) who apply for a visa to another country (say China) while in a different country from their home (say Russia).
posted by Pollomacho at 12:37 PM on September 15, 2009

@ Pollomacho - true, but in EU legislation it also refers to nationals of non-EU countries for all immigration purposes. Here's an example.
posted by juva at 1:13 PM on September 15, 2009