Freshgreen MIGRATION & travel BLOG

Let’s get down to business. We tend to think of others as migrants buuuuuttt actually, let’s reflect for a moment and try to understand that this word MIGRANTS applies to more of us than we/you/me realize.

WHO IS A MIGRANT?
1. –expatriates: ummm I’ve abandoned the term in favour of MIGRANT WORKERS b/c yeah, that is what you are! & family reunification 😛
2. –exchange students: junior year abroad? GAP year? yeahhh, you are definitely migrants!
3. –on that note, international students: for a month or an entire degree, you obvs agree that you are migrants rite? OR else, you and me shall have a mighty fun 😛 discussion!
4. –refugees: a most vulnerable group 🙁 let’s help!
5. –travellers: yes though short-term, you are M-I-G-R-A-T-I-N-G when you T-R-A-V-E-L and/or F-L-Y!
6. –movers even in-country: the fancy term is INTERNAL migration but just think about this: even when you change neighbourhoods, it is an adjustment b/c you have just migrated! 😛
ex: Florence to Roma, check! Geneva to Montpellier, yes! Ottawa to Montreal, why oui oui oui!
7. –diplomats: why yes, see 1. and 5. and 6. 🙂

This list is just off the top of my head and is inspired by a lot of ponderings in the hallways of the International Catholic Migration Committee and with T.P., my fave IOM mastermind!

But what do you think? Shall we dance? Or skirt around this issue of terminology or shall we accept that the actual number of migrants in this world is pretty much ASTRONOMICAL? I mean Martians would be migrants too if they make it to Earth 😛

IOM Director General Swing often says that the issue with MIGRANTS is that the term is so vast. C’est vrai. And so here I am trying to break it down for you.

So again, what do you think?
Can you accept that migrants are everywhere and actually they are we, as in you and me?

😉