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Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
Then we need to start calling "legal migrants" "legals." Not "migrants." Since it's SO important to call migrants who came here illegally, "illegals" then migrants who came here legally should be called "legals."
Let me know when that trend picks up.
Til then, they're ALL migrants, and immigrants. They have all come to live here- from somewhere else. Regardless of how they got here or their legal status once they get here.
Legal and illegal are conditions; they're adjectives. A person isn't an adjective. They're a noun. Migrant and immigrant are nouns.
Legal and illegal describe a person's status, not the person him/herself. They are not illegal. They aren't illegal immigrants. They're immigrants who have committed a crime by entering unlawfully. You don't call burglars "illegals" do you? Why not? They've committed crimes too. Do you call them "illegal inventory movers?" No? Why not? You're using the same type of terminology to describe people who move themselves from one place to another when they're not allowed to do so.
You're objectifying people, when you call them illegal immigrants or illegals. THEY are not illegal. They're 100% legitimately people who are allowed to be people. Their BEHAVIOR is illegal - but THEY - are not.
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A distinction without a difference. It is the CONNOTATION, not the denotation, that matters here. Especially to those Americans, such as my wife, who came here through the front door. They are American citizens who are also legal migrants. But they are Americans first. The illegals in this country who come here from other countries by illegal means are, by definition illegal aliens, but ILLEGAL first, last and always. They are not American citizens. They have nothing in common with the former legal migrants who became American citizens except that they came here from another country. They are living here in contravention of our laws. To use descriptors that intentionally gloss over that fact is to be--well--woke. And as such, to be furthering rather than helping to solve the problem.
It may not matter to those who have little or no direct experience with the topic other than a cursory acquaintance on, say, message boards, but it does to those involved with it directly. Sophistic word games merely cloud the issue.