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

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.

needs

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Some definitions

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

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.

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".

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

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?

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

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)

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.

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.

I wondered that too. I just copied the link. I assumed other people knew exactly what it meant, and no one had commented.

Don't know where that extra 'the' after endoscopist came from sorry!

Can someone define "migrants" please? It is an emotive term, but does it include my husband's incredibly talented German Gastro consultant, his Maltese endoscopist the who is one of the top gastro enterologists in London, the cheerful Antipodean male nurse, the Muslim dietician, the Filipino nurse who also goes to DH's church or indeed any of the friendly and efficient Eastern Europeans who provide such excellent service in Pizza Express/Costa coffee or The Edinburgh Jury's Inn?

Interesting link jingl. Thanks.
I had no idea that there were 1.5 million migrants here.

Yes, I voted Labour after Tony Blair took us into the illegal war - which I had marched against. I wasn't voting for Tony Blair, I was voting for Labour because there was no other party that I felt I could support.

I don't think I would have voted for him personally.

Yes durhamjen, got it in one, or was it two

Maybe we've already answered that question too many times before, soon, and do not wish to be reminded of the man.
Anyway, only those living in Sedgefield could have voted for him.

perhaps read this soon. (takes a while to load)

I didn't vote labour at that time. Can't remember if I was tempted to, but there was no chance of them getting in anyway, where I was.