Readers Won’t Benefit if Times Bans the Term ‘Illegal Immigrant’

[Lasher]

October 2, 2012
By New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan:

For two weeks, I’ve been listening to people and reading about the term “illegal immigrant.” I have gathered information from readers, advocates, reporters and editors. I even had a face-to-face meeting with the most visible proponent of a change to “undocumented,” Jose Antonio Vargas, whom I found to be intelligent, passionate and charming.

<snip>

After all the buildup, my weighing in may seem anticlimactic, because I see no advantage for Times readers in a move away from the paper’s use of the phrase “illegal immigrant.”

It is clear and accurate; it gets its job done in two words that are easily understood. The same cannot be said of the most frequently suggested alternatives – “unauthorized,” “immigrants without legal status,” “undocumented.” Undocumented, as the immigration reporter Julia Preston noted in an interview with me, has “a new currency” because of a federal policy change involving immigrants who came here as children 15 and under, so the word may be useful in that context.

Just as “illegal tenant” in a real estate story (another phrase you could have seen in Times articles or headlines) is brief and descriptive, so is “illegal immigrant.” In neither case is there an implication that those described that way necessarily have committed a crime, although in some cases they may have. The Times rightly forbids the expressions “illegals” and “illegal aliens.”

http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/readers-wont-benefit-if-times-bans-the-term-illegal-immigrant/

Food for thought, since this occasionally comes up as a bone of contention.

[graham4anything]

1. Statue of Liberty People. or just People.

illegal connotates criminal.

The statue of liberty (our beacon to all those in the world, but somehow many in the US seem to think the statue of liberty is only for those in Europe coming here, not for anyone south of the border.

It reminds me of the Wizard of Oz and how our friends from south of the border of Oz came to arrive in Oz seeking a brain, a heart, and courage.
And it took many many a moon for them to finally meet up with the wizard,
And the wizard said...(you know the story)

What is the difference between a citizen and a non-citizen seeking refuge, some political, some economical, all looking for a better life?
Just a stinkin' piece of paper. A Stinkin' piece of paper. Repeat after me- a stinkin' piece of paper. (which is the same thing as the paper a newspaper is written on.)

Hey NY Times-your box in your paper historically says "ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO PRINT"
Which I always took to be a methaphor for prejudice, ironically enough.
What about the news that is not fit to print? Why is it not fit for print?
But readers don't know that either, do they?

Change the words.

illegal immigrants is to 2012 words like the N word is. We don't print that do we Mr.NY Times?
(especially as the rightwingrepublicantealibertarians doesn't consider these people people in the first place.)

and these are PEOPLE. PEOPLE. PEOPLE. these are not criminals.
(why is Barbra Streisand streaming through my head?)


Please President Obama, be like the kind gentle wizard, and let's give these people that piece of paper and then let's make a fast path toward citizenship for the 100% of those that are not criminals. All it takes to make someone legal is a STINKING PIECE OF PAPER. Let's give the tired, the poor who flock here, that STINKING PIECE OF PAPER like the Wizard of Oz gave his fellow travelers from south of Oz's border.

[graham4anything]

2. The Statue of Liberty words from "The New Colossus" poem by Emma Lazarus(c)

Immortalized in the poem of Emma Lazarus, the Statue speaks eternally the words of compassion: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." These words from the "The New Colossus," written in 1883, appear on the Statue's pedestal.

"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name,
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

[Lefty Thinker]

3. How about "unauthorized immigrant"?

Words are important. I program computers and if I don't choose just the right name for a concept, the it gets used in a way it shouldn't or doesn't get used when it should. The truth is that these people did not (whether or not it was feasible) go through the established channels to approve their immigration. But the conditions are allowed to exist in this country that accommodate their unauthorized immigration. It's like putting an ice cube in boiling water and expecting it to stay frozen.

I don't believe that it is the individual households that hire these immigrants that cause the problem (although they contribute) but the companies that like to hire people who lack the protections of labor law to drive down wages. It's an illegal act that is an attack on the middle class, and you can be sure that most of the business owners doing this are the same Republicans complaining about the problem they themselves created.

[Igel]

4. The "noun first" folk wouldn't allow it.

How dare you call any person "unauthorized."

What does it even mean to be an "unauthorized person"--a person who hasn't received authority to exist?

Yeah, it's a silly stretch of linguistic non-competence. Yet it's one often enough done with "illegal immigrant" = "illegal person".

I personally like "illegal alien", but the lexical semantics of that phrase are even less straightforward.

[Lasher]

5. That is mentioned in the OP.

It is a euphemism that does not convey meaning as clearly as 'illegal immigrant'.