Shower Thoughts On What It Means To “Be An International”

There is a small talk question I must have answered a hundred times now:

"So, where are you from?” 
“I am from Germany.”
“That’s so cool! Where exactly?”
“Uh, how well do you know Germany? Have you been?” 
... adjusting the answer as needed...
 “The Mid-West” / “Do you know Frankfurt? It’s about an hour by car from where I grew up.” / “Near Mainz,  30 km down the river Rhine from there.” 
 ... 
 “So what about you?”

And the conversation moves on. When you travel to another country, “being from another country” is interesting to people. I am not complaining, I ask the same things…  

I am not a migrant. Or am I?

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs defines a long-term migrant as a person who lives outside their country of origin for at least 12 months.¹

Despite having spent some 16 months in France (= not my country of origin) and now living in Australia for the next year, I somehow never thought to apply the term of international migrant to myself. That is partly because in the media, the word (im)migrant is often associated with illegal or forced migration. The association persists despite the fact that the majority of international migration happens across regular pathways with valid visas.² More than that, the word migration is – in my head at least – associated with permanency, with leaving your country to build a new life elsewhere. Sure, when I moved to France some of it really felt like immigration. I signed a work contract, got a social security number, a numéro fiscale (= tax ID). Nevertheless, moving for the PhD feels temporary, even more so within the AUFRANDE program where time is split between two countries. Yes, I MIGHT get a postdoc here and I MIGHT fall in love with a French man and decide to stay forever… but my subconscious default assumption is that I will return to Germany after finishing my degree. Or I will move somewhere else entirely. Much more than as an immigrant I have identified myself as being an “international”. An international student. An international scientist. An international.

The bubble

From my observation, internationals tend to hang around a lot with other internationals. The closest friends I have made come from other countries as well.³  We all have that common ground of having to start our social circle from scratch, of trying to find new friends among colleagues. The language barrier feels smaller if everyone defaults to English and languages themselves – the differences and difficulties in learning – become a common topic of conversation. It’s good company. But it contributes to the feeling of “being international” more than “being an immigrant”.

A semi-permanent visitor

Maybe until I settle down, I am just a semi-permanent visitor, more than a tourist but not quite a local. I enjoy the excitement of being somewhere new, the learning, the taste of adventure. I can make the most amazing friends while I am passing through. When I move elsewhere, I will need to remember to give them a call every now and then.