Saturday, July 27, 2013

The U.N. wants you to use term 'Irregular' rather than 'Illegal' Immigrants

And here I thought being 'irregular' meant you needed more bran in your diet:
..."Illegal immigration" apparently carries connotations of criminality, of someone doing something wrong. Like, for example, paying a people smuggler €700 to transport them a rickety boat that might sink with the loss of all on board. Whereas "irregular" is a more "neutral" term. Probably all the same to you and me. 
Except it's not. According to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Malta, which gave me a leaflet about what words to use when discussing this issue, it's wrong to use the term "illegal". The reason is that most of those who arrive in Malta claim asylum, and even though they are locked up while their claims are processed, that detention is "administrative and not criminal". Also frowned upon is the word "clandestine", which has a "strong negative connection, invoking a sense of criminality". Instead, it recommends the phrase "irregular migrants".
[...] 
True, some American news organisations have followed the UN's line on this one for a while. The Associated Press, whose house style book is highly influential, stopped using the words "illegal immigrant" in 2009. It was prompted partly by the heated debate over Hispanic migrants who have come entered the US illegally, some of whom have been living honest, hard-working lives for years and resent being defined solely as "illegal". That's perhaps a fair point, although AP's move has also inspired a gag on Twitter called #NewAPStyle, dedicated to thinking up bland terms for existing words. A murderer, for example, might instead be a "person accused of unlawfully ceasing the life of another".
For the record, though, I myself stuck to using the word "illegal" in my report. Why? First of all, I am a hack. My primary obligation is to my readers, so I prefer, where possible, to use the language that they tend to use, rather than that which certain official bodies might prefer me to. For one thing, if we had to pay attention every time an official organisation or lobby group wrote to us asking for us to use this preferred phrase or that, our house style would be twice as thick as it is, and we'd probably never get the newspaper out. But also, "illegal" was the phrase that most of the people I spoke to in Malta used – not just the residents but the migrants themselves. 
Besides, if the word "illegal" carries certain connotations, does the word "irregular" not also do so? An "irregularity" with someone's immigration status suggests a simple, easily rectifiable problem, a glitch in one's paperwork perhaps. As opposed, perhaps, to having no paperwork at all. It suggests something that is not a big deal
Read the rest of the story HERE.

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2 comments:

BOSMAN said...

And here I thought being 'irregular', was something that just happens to old folks

CRUZ COUNTRY said...

I prefer the term "CRIMINAL ALIENS", because that's exactly what they are. If that's not politically correct enough, TFB.