Friday, July 5, 2013

I’m not against immigration

But it really irks me when people – especially journalists – use migrant and immigrant as though they mean the same thing.  The problem might be with the headline writers.

Here’s a recent example:

Migrant

According to Webster:

Migrant – a person or animal that migrates.  Also called migrant worker, a person who moves from place to place to get work, especially a farm laborer who harvests crops seasonally.

Immigrant – a person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence.

So…a migrant isn’t necessarily an immigrant from another country.

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