Usually, an expatriate is someone that goes abroad for work during a set amount of time. If you leave your country voluntarily for any kind of reasons, you are a migrant. However, things have now become slightly more complicated. First, because globalization has become a reality, and then because travels have grown easier and cheaper. So at the time being, you can either become an expatriate because your work or your company requests it, or you may also decide to become one. Nowadays, more and more young people choose to live and work abroad on their own will. The Lord Mayor of London cracked jokingly that his city had now become the second largest French community in the world. Retirees have also become a new group of expatriates. So much so that countries like Ecuador, Costa Rica, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Thailand or Malaysia have widely welcomed them as a source of new income. Another group rarely ever mentioned are the expatriation kids. They are a new generation of children, who follow their parents from country to country, attending international schools and who, sometimes, know their country of origin only during the holidays.
Each of these four groups functions differently. But today's reflection deals solely with the idea of what it takes to be an expatriate.
It is never an easy task to leave one's country and live in another. It is easier when two cultures are close to each other. More difficult when the cultures are drastically different or even when welfare becomes a real challenge. In some cases, people cannot even bear the challenge and decide to return to their homeland by saying “expatriation is not for me”. It is true that being an expatriate puts you on the razor's edge. It implies you must leave your comfort zone behind and adapt to a new lifestyle; quite often to a new language as well! Yet, there are positive sides too. It can become a rich, personal experience, a source of daily learning. In the long run, it contributes individuals to change and to adapt to other situations.
But being an expatriate makes you forever different for two main reasons.
- On the one hand, you need to adapt and accept other customs or ways of life. This does not simply deal with religious or cultural values. These can be somehow bypassed on a daily basis. It deals essentially with some more pragmatic concerns like food, medical facilities, school education for the children, or an even more insurmountable problem due to the language barrier. Consequently, the main effort of an expatriate is to adapt the best way possible to the host country. One major key to the problem is communication, which means a common language. Being in a country that speaks the same language makes the situation obviously easier. French, English or Spanish speakers may find it more bearable to live in a country that uses one of these languages. There are regions like Scandinavia, where almost everybody speaks English. But what do you do when you are in a country like Indonesia, Thailand or even Japan, where very few people speak or understand another language in daily life. At one time, it was a common belief that to learn a foreign language, you needed to do it at an early age. Linguistic research has since acknowledged that pure necessity becomes a booster to learn another language. The pending question here is not to master another language but to be able to communicate properly. The problem becomes even more accurate in countries where writing is also different like in Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Korea or Thailand to name but a few. I once visited a Japanese friend, who was a journalist for the Asahi Shinbun, on the island of Shikoku, off the main island of Honshu. In Tokushima, the main city, things were all right even when I was on my own. But one day, I decided to travel south out of the city alone. I ended up having the hardest time to find my way or even simply eat at any place! I found myself in an identical situation in Busan, South Korea and in Chengdu, China with absolutely no one speaking English nor having a restaurant menu I could read! But then, I was only visiting these places. So this was just a temporary discomfort.
- On the other hand, an expatriate also sees his/her own country with different eyes. It is not only because you have invariably become a different person. You get more critical towards your country of origin because you see it with another eye. It is due to the time spent overseas. Returning to your homeland for a holiday means that you haven't seen it for a long period of time. Therefore, your eyes put you in the position of a newcomer. You see things that other natives do not pay attention to anymore. The habit has obliterated a fresh vision of the changes for them. They have grown accustomed to the changes whereas the expatriate is suddenly confronted with the changes due to the elapsed time. The same thing happens when you come across someone you haven't seen for years. Similarly, you don't see that you have also changed simply because you can look at your mirror on a daily basis.
It has always surprised me how my American colleagues in the various international schools I worked for, behaved and thought differently from grass root Americans. Many even choose not to return to the U.S. to live. America is such a big country that it is hard for US citizens to imagine life somewhere else. The situation becomes different for those, who have lived elsewhere and have learned to judge their own culture from outside. This is a crucial point.
In reality, living abroad seems to suppress nationality barriers. I first became aware of this fact when living in the States. European expatriates were obviously sharing a common heritage. It was clear that the overwhelming weight of history and customs were cementing a common approach.
As an educator in a few international schools worldwide, it became even clearer. The expatriate communities are not concerned with nationalities anymore. And this is because they all share common grounds. The same fundamental rules of adaptation apply as they live in one specific foreign country becoming the main focus of attention. Views and needs converge. So, you start having friends from many different countries or races. This is even more obvious in the melting-pot of international schools. Teachers have the same views and students just become natural friends with others. These are the roots of a new generation of global citizens. This is even more obvious with the expatriate kids. Some of them have never even lived in their respective countries! They are probably the ones on which you may count for a new form of globalization.
Many years ago, as a teacher in Algeria, I went through an interesting mutation. In the one high school, I was teaching, the Algerian education system had started to install two parallel tracks : the traditional French-speaking track and a newly started Arabic-speaking track. At this stage, the objective is not meant to denigrate one over the other. But since I had my feet in both, I could clearly see that the French-educated school-children were far more open-minded than the other group. The reason is very simple. The French-educated track dealt with bilingualism whereas the others had become mono-linguists. The same observation applies to international schools, where students are widely bilinguals and most importantly perceive different habits and ways of life.
Another experience recently happened to me reminding me to mention another side of expatriation. It deals with the sensitive issue of exclusion, which sometimes leads to ostracism or even racism.
The Thais always refer to foreigners as being 'farang'. Linguistically speaking the word is a deformation of the French language. In the 17th century, diplomatic ties were established between France and Siam. At the time, Ayutthaya was still the capital of the Siamese Kingdom. But there existed a foreign settlement on the Chao Phraya River in what is now the City of Bangkok. The Thais then started to know a new group of French traders and priests after the Portuguese. The French word “Français” they heard became 'Farangse' in the Thai language. Then later the term 'Farang' started to apply to any other foreigner. Because of their cultural heritage, the Thais commonly continue to apply the term 'Farang' to any other foreigner in their country even they have lived there for a long time. This is derogatory but not racist because the Thais are usually very open and tolerant people with no sense of adversity against other races. In Thailand – as well as many other countries in southeast Asia – many touristic or religious sites offer a dual price according to the origin of the visitors. It is free or a lower price if you are a Thai; much more expensive if you are a foreigner. This has become a really sensitive issue and a shock to many local expatriates, more than tourists, who tend to accept or ignore this reality. Sometimes it also applies to retirees. Many countries nowadays offer discounts to seniors. Thailand is no exception, although it often applies to Thai nationals only. This is not always clear cut, though. To use the MRT (underground) system in Bangkok, they do grant a 50% discount to anybody above the age of 65. But strangely enough, it is not the case with the BTS ('Skytrain') system that refuses to apply the regulation to resident 'Farangs'.
Lately, I visited a private elementary school in the suburbs of Bangkok. This school has a special curriculum to teach English as well as Thai. Consequently, they recruit many foreign teachers. Most of then are Americans. Now, most 'Farangs' are perceived as being white-skinned. This leads this reflection to another sensitive issue: in the whole of Asia whiteness is perceived as an absolute cultural factor. All Asians will avoid being exposed to sun rays. This is why they avoid going to the beach in daytime or that you see them walking with an open umbrella on a sunny day. One Thai friend even confided that you may have no chance to be recruited for a job, particularly in the tourist industry, if your skin is too dark. This accounts why they crave for whiteness. But then what happens if, let's say, the American 'farang' is not a white American? One of the teachers I was with at that school, was a young black female graduate from Washington D.C. As we were chatting out on the open school veranda with a group of her children, one boy, then a second one, couldn't help touching my arm. It made me laugh because I knew straight away that he had never seen a hairy man's arm before and that it was a total novelty! It reminded me this was a constant surprise when I was living in Indonesia. But it was the first time here in Thailand after six years! At the same time, this was happening, one of the school-girl was hugging her black American teacher. I knew that the first months she had taught here had been a real ordeal just because she was a different color. But after two years teaching at the school, things had become totally different. It shows how ignorance can have a negative impact on individuals. And only education can change what appears to be a fear of the unknown. These children may never be like others because they have seen foreigners, who are not simply 'farangs', not only white, and above all becoming bilingual will make them even more open-minded.
Being an open expatriate will remain an everlasting experience. There is so much to like or to understand. But this enriching approach must be willingly carried on. Because it is also easy to just shun away by living a parallel life. It applies to locals as well as expatriates alike. Too often, many expatriates choose to remain in their own spheres in order to keep their feet in a comfort zone. On the other hand, it also explains why many natives choose to avoid expatriates for as many reasons as religion, skin color, cultural differences or language barriers. Only education and a mixed nature can avoid leading to ignorance and racism.
Christian Sorand
