I might vote Tory but that doesn't make me a bad person

Yes, Soutra, they are all migrants unless they were born here of married migrant parents. As are my daughter in law my ex daughter in law's parents, my other son's partner.
Some migrants are acceptable; others are not.

I do not understand why the people fleeing from Africa are called migrants instead of refugees, unless it means we can send them back more easily.

When you think about it, 1.5 million is not many to make all this much fuss about. There are far more British migrants abroad.

It is such an emotive term,as you say what happened to "immigrant"and "refugee". And given that people from EU countries have the right to work in the UK should there be an additional designation at all? We don't necessarily specify "Scottish "Mancunian" or "Welsh" do we?

(Questionable practice to copy links without reading them first and knowing what you are quoting though, Soontobe)

I would think people fleeing from Africa are 'refugees' until they have been formally accepted into a new country, when they become legal 'immigrants'.

I wouldn't think someone temporarily working in the Uk from another European country, would be called an 'immigrant'. Wouldn't they just be here on a work permit?

And you might not even need that, depending where you are from.

Nobody has used the word refugee for a long time. Nowadays they are all asylum seekers (politician speak – never use one word when you can use two or more) which then gives the opportunity for some of the media to berate them using the bogus term "bogus asylum seekers".

I read the piece. All of it. I assumed the word was not emotive as it is a commonly used word. I know that just because I dont fully understand a word, doesnt mean that no other gransnetters dont.

Some definitions

www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/policy_research/the_truth_about_asylum/the_facts_about_asylum

I can't see any difference between 'refugees' and 'asylum seekers'. Really can't. They could be called 'bogus refugees' just as easily.

An asylum seeker is someone who has not been given official refugee status.
A refugee is someone who left his/her own country wanting asylum in another country, and who dare not go back home for fear of persecution, and whose story has been believed by the country arrived at.

Is that the right way round Jen?

Step 1
An asylum seeker is someone who has asked the British government for protection under international law and has not had a decision on their case yet.

Step 2
A refugee is someone who has proven that they need protection under international law and the government has granted them refugee status in Britain.

It's the definition of "migrant" that I find really woolly. Even statistically it can either include or ignore particular groups.

I agree with those definitions, gracesgran, except that I would say, for step two, that a refugee is a person whom, it has been shown, need protection from happenings or people in their home country.

I've just made it passive as quite often I don't think asylum seekers are in a position to prove much.

needs

Gracesgran, you said exactly what I said.
You are actually an asylum seeker first, then become a refugee after you have been granted refugee status.

Oh, thanks for dragging this thread up again, durhamjen. Just what we need...

theconversation.com/why-the-uk-has-a-special-responsibility-to-protect-its-share-of-refugees-41773

Why is "migrant" an emotive term?

Lots of people are migrants.

A person who moves from one place to another in order to find work or better living conditions

I didn't think migrant was an emotive term. Asylum seeker is more emotive, in my opinion.

Both are merely descriptive terms in my opinion. An asylum seeker is also a migrant but a migrant might not be seeking asylum.

rose that makes me one !

Indeed, GK, me too.
And do you count as a migrant if, for example, you do a Norman Tebbitt and get on your bike and move from Newcastle to London for work?
With increasing separatism in the UK, where are we going to draw the line?

In that case I am a migrant.
And my ancestors were immigrants - and then some emigrated somewhere else. Then they came back again.