So, Am I an immigrant too?

It hit me while getting a haircut in Cascais, Portugal. Andreia came from Brazil 10 years ago but didn’t consider herself an immigrant, “I wasn’t desperate to come, like all the new ones”, she reasoned.

Her logic picked my interest instantly: ‘So, what are you then?’ I asked in suspense, turning on the Socratic mode switch in my head.

“I don’t know, but I’m not an immigrant, I just wanted to travel and see the world”.

After a brief review of all the available words we could find in the Portuguese language, we concluded there was indeed no more appropriate label to describe how she identified herself. She wasn’t satisfied with our findings and proceeded to focus on her haircut instead.

So why am I writing about an idle barbershop conversation?, why was it so important for me to find the right label?, more to the point, who cares?.  For that, you would have to know me a bit, in my Cartesian mind nothing is more worthy of attention than an unresolved taxonomic label, and in my case, the question was relevant because it was already rattling around my brain. Because I was missing my own label, what am I?.

And that is the reason why you are reading this now. I want to share my journey and the experiences that come with living the nomadic lifestyle, thus the name of my site/blog  ExplorAlive … in my mind they go together, living is exploring. I’ll work through related topics as best as I know how – by writing and sharing in the hope it may be useful for fellow ‘migrants / expats / travelers / explorers’.

You see, the label I’ve been proudly wearing for the past 20 years working as a PepsiCo executive is ’expat’, I relocated from Monterrey to Dallas, then Sao Paulo, back to Mexico City, Geneva and finally Portugal with the family in tow. Expat is a status word that precisely captures the nomadic lifestyle that defines our family and my personal identity.  Expat conveys a sense of worldliness offered to a select few, where exotic travel, business class,  VIP lounges, international schools, and all sort of other perks are a given, and the lucky chosen ones glide across continents and carry out their exciting lives in multiple languages at the same time. What’s not to like?. (that is in theory, in reality, there is a lot not to like too… but I digress)

Given that I just retired and I’m no longer a globe-trotting CFO, expat no longer seems to be my label. Unlike during the past 20 years, I’m no longer ‘on assignment’, ‘under contract’ … So, If I’m not an ’expat’, what am I? … God forbid, an immigrant? (If I wore pearls I would be clutching them right now).

As most things today, the answer to this personal identity crisis was being simultaneously worked on by the Great Algorithm in the sky…. recently materializing via a Facebook post in the Expats in Portugal group. The seemingly innocent question “Who is an expat and who is an immigrant?” generated 76 comments in a couple of hours after being posted, here is a sample:

• The dictionary says that the expatriate is the one “who is outside the country”, who was “exiled”. The same book defines emigrants as those who “voluntarily leave the place where they live to establish themselves in another”.
• An expat is defined as a person who lives outside their native country. Similarly, an immigrant is a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country
• Expatriation is driven by desire, immigration is driven by need.
• Expat = White | Immigrant = All other races
• One moves to another country buys a property, spends their money in a way as to create jobs without take a job themselves and boosts the economy. The other moves to another country claims social security gets social housing pays no tax and takes jobs away from people.
• The stereotype is that expats are rich and immigrants are poor.
• I consider myself an immigrant but to be honest, would I have joined a FB group called “immigrants in …” ? 😂

I have edited out most of the usual discussion board animus and recognizing that FB comments aren’t usually a valid form of research, they do provide a glimpse into the emotional baggage of the word.  Clearly, there was a lot of passion for the subject as it touched personal identities deeply … the last comment boiled it down brutally.

I have to recognize the baggage that I carry. I was born in northern Mexico, close to the US border, where words like bracero, guest worker, or mojado, wetback, illegal alien have been used to label a group of people with harsh judgments attached to them. The epithets from the north range from freeloaders to (lately) rapists and murderers; from the south malinchista (a long story, basically a traitor) to desarraigado (rootless).  The kindest thing you could say for a migrant is that they were poor and uneducated but willing to work… no surprise I evade being slapped with that label.

As I prepare to pontificate from my soapbox, I must recognize that -more important than the emotional baggage described-, human migratory flows are today one of the key unsolved issues of humanity: tearing countries apart politically (Brexit/Trump); destabilizing governments and alliances (Germany, Italy/EU, NATO); splitting families and aggravating human suffering. Trying to avoid this cultural/political minefield, I’ll focus my comments on the migrants who follow the rules, apply for permission to migrate and then join their new communities responsibly.  The other kind deserves some attention too, I’ll save that for another post.

Maybe because I’m older and I don’t feel the need for acceptance as keenly; or because I don’t have to, nor need to compete for a job; or because I don’t have dark skin and rarely feel discriminated against anyway; Or maybe, just maybe, I’ve grown more empathic in my old age. I now feel like I can’t and shouldn’t safely stand apart behind a nice label. An expat is only but a wealthier and less permanent sort of migrant,  but at any moment in time, we are immigrants too, and we should wear the label with pride.

These days it’s not popular to be a migrant, not when the world is descending into tribalism and nationalism, but there is no fundamental difference in my status from that of a Syrian refugee, or an African attempting to cross the Mediterranean, or a Honduran walking in a caravan across Mexico, other than the fact that they are far away and not really my problem … or are they?.

So, I’ve arrived at a more useful and self-serving definition that encompasses three elements:

An immigrant is someone who:
a) Estimates he/she will be better off there rather than here,
b) Calculates that the difference is large enough to offset the costs of relocating,
c) Acts on his/her calculation.

Let’s break down the pieces:

a) Estimates he/she will be better off there rather than here
This goes beyond the grass is always greener, the migrant is a VISIONARY that can imagine a better future, in a foreign land with different culture and language. The benefits can come in many flavors: for the corporate expat, it might come in the form of an accelerated career path or a better paying job; for the refugee, it might be an escape from famine, criminal gangs, or persecution.

b) Calculates that the difference is large enough to offset the costs of relocating
The migrant is also a PLANNER that can intuitively grasp a complex long-term trade-off, one that usually won’t payback for the first generation but is willing to take the pain in exchange for the gain that will accrue to their offspring. This calculation contains an assessment of the relative worth of community vs. personal growth: the ones that leave are placing more weight on growing than on their community, they clearly have a lower need for belonging than the ones that stay behind (cue sad violin music and pan to the disapproving eyes of my mom).

c) Acts on his/her calculation
They are DOERS, they don’t sit on their hands and agonize over the risks, they would rather try and lose than not try at all.

Viewed through the above framework, migrants are Visionary Planners that Build things. No wonder that high ratios of foreign-born population correlate positively with high levels of entrepreneurship … what drives migrants are exactly the qualities needed to launch a new venture. Who wouldn’t want to attract people of that caliber to grow a country?

In conclusion and paraphrasing JFK: Ich bin ein Immigrant !