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Comment by 1stop | Hacker News Reader

I think China is a good reminder that the word "migrant" is just newspeak, most countries use it to refer to people fromother countries, China use it for people from another city...

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I'm pretty sure China uses some Chinese word instead. And at least around here (European country), "migration" and "migrants" are also used when referring to people moving between regions inside the same country.

外地 (wai di)- from outside places/soil. Not nationality bound, more a term for migrant workers 'not being from around here'. But using this term suggests some comfort or familiarity with the local place. Otherwise, just state origin.

本地 (ben di)- from local / basic soil. Often used as a badge of pride.

民工 (min gong)- common term for migrant worker in China. Interesting decomposition of the work - 民 (min) meaning a person, or member of the people. 工 (gong) meaning work (with one's hands, literal). This would be the closest match for a European moving country in seek of wage.

Here in India people use the word "migrant" for people who come from other parts of country. Perhaps this is the case in large countries.

Which part of India are you from? I've never heard the term "migrant" to describe people from other states within India.

In many states of India, you will be called an immigrant, not just migrant. Generally, the choicest of abuses are reserved for Bihari migrants though. Not so for educated migrants for Kerala, for example. Most Indian states have cultural identities stronger than even some European nation states and hence the conflict with the other.

Not in the US. From Alaska? Maybe rough around the edges but citizen not migrant.

Yeah, I don't even think most people in the US would use the word migrant to talk about someone from Canada. When I hear "migrant worker", the image in my head is agricultural workers coming from Mexico.

Not just China - in the Great Depression, the Okies fleeing the Dust Bowl were "migrant" workers

Migrant workers, not migrant refugees. These are people who comes from poor rural communities in search of better jobs and future, not opportunistic economic migrants who come to take advantage of an European welfare state.

Also note that without a hukou they receive limited education and government services. This prevents them from settling in the cities they work in.

Have you ever actually spoken to one of those "opportunistic economic migrants" who apparently don't like the bad economic situation of places like syria, anymore?

Many people fleeing Syria are not economic migrants, I'd say.

And not poor peasants in the main its the middle class who can afford to pay to be smuggled.

Really? How insightful.. someone tell OP?

How do you sort out people who comes from poor rural communities in search of better jobs and future from the opportunistic economic migrants who come to take advantage of an European welfare state?

Religion? Ethnicity? Country of origin?

There are also certain obstacles related to internal migration in Russia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_movement#Russia

Maybe you're an emigrant. Everyone looks at you as an immigrant doing migrant work...

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