Expatriates: The Unofficial Ambassadors

More good thought-provoking commentary from Victoria Ferauge on expats. While written from an American perspective, relevance to Canada given the large number (close to 3 million) Canadians abroad:

The Face of Americans Abroad:  7 million people with very different reasons for being abroad and of every color, creed, class.  Some are indeed missionaries.  Many are teachers or professors.  There are retirees, economic and marriage migrants, true expatriates sent by their companies, and so much more.  The Peace Corps, for example, is still around.  There is also the military and former military.

There is an almost infinite number of combinations here that begin with who these people were before they left the US, why they went abroad, what they do and where they went or were sent and with whom.

[David] Kuenzi [author of Wall Street Journal Op-Ed] qualifies his statement by referring to three categories:  “businesspersons, scholars or trailing spouses” but these are only a small fraction of the Americans living abroad.

I think that the largest group of Americans abroad looks like this:  they don’t want any or minimal contact with the US government and other Americans while they are living abroad, they do not want to join any American organization be it Democrats Abroad, Republicans Overseas, AARO or ACA: they are keenly interested in being good denizens of their countries of residence, and these days more and more of them aspire to become citizens of those states.  They make no demands on the United States while they are abroad.  In many cases the very minimal protection of the US government is neither attractive nor relevant to them since they know the limits of the local consulates assistance a list of local lawyers who speak English and they understand that the US government will not expend political capital on their behalf to get them out of trouble.    And if it weren’t for the fact that they have to have a passport to enter the US to see family, they would probably forgo that as well.  What they want is to be left alone to go about their business and their lives.

Are these people good “unofficial ambassadors”?  I have no idea and neither does anyone else.

For those Canadian expatriates, or former expatriates among you, Victoria would appreciate your help in the following:

And for those of you who are members of other diasporas, I’d be very interested in knowing if a similar situation exists between you and your home country.

The Franco-American Flophouse: The Unofficial Ambassador.