Glossary

These fifteen key terms are used throughout this website and in most literature on migration. All definitions are drawn from the Oxford English Dictionary

  1. Acculturate (v.): a) To adapt or assimilate (an idea, object, etc.) to a culture different from the one in which it originated; to acquire through acculturation. b) To cause (a person or group) to adapt to or adopt a different culture, esp. that of a colonizing, conquering, or majority group; to subject to acculturation. c) Of a person or group: to adapt to or adopt a different culture; to undergo acculturation.

  2. Citizen (n.): a) An inhabitant of a city or town; esp. one possessing civic rights and privileges, a burgess or freeman of a city. b) An ordinary (city- or town-dwelling) person as opposed to a member of the landed nobility or gentry on one hand or an artisan, labourer, etc., on the other. c) A legally recognized subject or national of a state, commonwealth, or other polity, either native or naturalized, having certain rights, privileges, or duties. d) With modifying adjective. A person considered in terms of his or her acceptance or fulfilment of the duties and responsibilities of a member of society. e) A civilian as distinguished from a soldier or police officer, or from a member of some other specialized (usually state-organized) profession or group.

  3. Diaspora (n.): a) The body of Jews living outside the land of Israel; the countries and places inhabited by these, regarded collectively; the dispersion of the Jewish people beyond the land of Israel. Also with reference to the early Christians: Christians of Jewish origin living outside the land of Israel, as recipients of the Gospels (see James 1:1, 1 Peter 1:1) (hist.). Freq. with capital initial. Usu. with the. b) Any group of people who have spread or become dispersed beyond their traditional homeland or point of origin; the dispersion or spread of a group of people in this way; an instance of this. Also: the countries and places inhabited by such a group, regarded collectively. c) The state or fact of having been dispersed from one's homeland or point of origin.

  4. Emigrate (v.): a) To remove out of a country for the purpose of settling in another.

  5. Émigré (n.): a) A Frenchman who has left his country for another; esp. one of those Royalists who fled at the French Revolution. b) An emigrant of any nationality, esp. a political exile.

  6. Expatriate:  a) An expatriated person. In modern usage, a person who lives in a foreign country. b) Of, pertaining to, or being an expatriate; living in a foreign country esp. by choice.

  7. Immigrant (n.): a) One who or that which immigrates; a person who migrates into a country as a settler.

  8. Indigenous (adj.): a) Born or produced naturally in a land or region; native or belonging naturally to (the soil, region, etc.). (Used primarily of aboriginal inhabitants or natural products.). b) Inborn, innate, native.

  9. Integrate (v.): a) To render entire or complete; to make up, compose, constitute (a whole): said of the parts or elements. b) To complete or perfect (what is imperfect) by the addition of the necessary parts. c) To put or bring together (parts or elements) so as to form one whole; to combine into a whole. d) To bring (racially or culturally differentiated peoples) into equal membership of a society or system; to cease to segregate (racially). 

  10. Immigrate (v.): a) To come to settle in a country (which is not one's own); to pass into a new habitat or place of residence. b) To bring in or introduce as settlers.

  11. Migrant (n.): a) A person who moves temporarily or seasonally from place to place; a person on a journey. b) A person who moves permanently to live in a new country, town, etc., esp. to look for work, or to take up a post, etc.; an immigrant.

  12. Migrate (v.): a) Of a person or a people: to move about, to move frequently (obs.); to move, either temporarily or permanently, from one place, area, or country of residence to another; to move to another place of residence or study, field of employment, etc. b) Of a material or immaterial object, a phenomenon, idea, etc.: to pass or move away from its original or appointed place; to move to a new location. c) To move or relocate (a person, object, custom, etc.).

  13. Native (n.): a) A person born in a specified place, region, or country, whether subsequently resident there or not. b) A person resident in a particular place or locale; a citizen. c) Something from or associated with a particular place.

  14. Naturalise (v.): a) To admit (a foreigner or immigrant) to the position and rights of citizenship; to invest with the privileges of a native-born subject. b) More generally: to make a thing native, common, or fitting; to put (something foreign) on a level with what is native. c) To become naturalized; to settle down as if native.

  15. Other (n.): a) Separate or distinct from that or those already specified or implied; different. b) Different in kind, nature, or quality. In predicative use now freq. implying the absence of any common characteristics. c) Used pleonastically to designate an additional person or thing explicitly characterized or identified as of a different kind from that previously mentioned. d) A person other than oneself; a person or group that is outside or excluded from one's own group.