[Ads-l] FW: Forgotten title: "migrant" or "refugee"

[David Barnhart]

From: David Barnhart [mailto:dbarnhart at highlands.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 02, 2015 11:06 AM
To: 'American Dialect Society'
Subject: 

 

This from an article suggested by Hugo is interesting:

 

There's nothing new in this. Fifteen years ago the Conservatives were
getting worked up about "bogus asylum seekers". This was nonsense: you are
either an asylum seeker or you aren't. But that wasn't the point - which
was, rather than to demonstrate the traditional British values of compassion
and fairness to those seeking refuge here, to denigrate them for crude
political purposes.

This is the background against which Al Jazeera English has announced it
will no longer use the word "migrants" but "refugees", in the context of
desperate people trying to enter Europe by the Mediterranean.  David Marsh,
"We deride them as 'migrants'. Why not call them people?" The Guardian
[U.K.], Aug. 28, 2015

 

Perhaps part of the mix of terms can be attributed to the motivation of the
traveler.

 

DKB

 

 


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