A foreign workers - a legionary, an expat or a gastarbeiter- which one is correct?

As it is well known, Russia is the most multi-ethnic and multi-religious country in the world - more than 190 nationalities, 3 world religions and more than 15 major religious movements have coexisted peacefully within one single state for many years. It is in Russia that Muslims and Jews live peacefully, Georgians and Ossetians, Armenians and Azerbaijanis, St. Petersburg people and Moscow people (here is a joke :)).

Such peaceful coexistence of representatives of different nations or religions became possible due to tolerance, harmony in society and a long shared history with neighboring states, whose citizens now are the basis of the flow of labor migrants.

But after the collapse of the USSR, over time, Russian society began to experience a stratification of society in relation to the attitude of its former compatriots (within the framework of the USSR). Most of the citizens retained an adequate attitude towards representatives of other nations and religions, while others began to see in working foreigners the root of all the troubles of Russia - from low salaries of Russians to crime.

The result of such a different attitude towards foreigners working in Russia was the emergence of various names for such a phenomenon as a migrant worker from another state. Some of them are absolutely neutral, and the others are quite incorrect.

So:

• A Foreign worker
• A Labor migrant
• An Expat
• A Legionary
• A gastarbeiter

A Foreign worker

The most correct phrase from the point of view of law and ethics is a foreign worker or a foreign employee.

Unfortunately, this term is used only by personnel officers and lawyers of organizations where such employees are present.

A Labor migrant

A labor migrant is  a very general term that refers to a person who has moved for a short period from a permanent place of residence to another place for a higher salary.

Migrants are divided into 2 categories:

* - who came - immigrants,

* - migrants who left - emigrants.

Migration happens not only abroad or from abroad, but also within Russia. Therefore, a migrant worker may well be a resident of any region of Russia who came to Moscow for the "long ruble".

Moreover, according to official statistics, almost 500 thousand people (about 30%) of the residents of the Leningrad Region are migrant workers, since they are registered and live in the Leningrad Region, and work in St. Petersburg. In Moscow, the situation is similar - but the percentage of such "inter-regional" migrants is less.

By the way, this kind of interregional pendulum migration is one of the reasons why there is a desire to unite St. Petersburg itself and Leningrad region together. The fact is that while working in St. Petersburg, a resident of the Leningrad region pays taxes in the city. But, living in the Leningrad region, in fact, such a citizen uses the infrastructure (roads, medicine, education) for which he does not pay.

Expat

The word expat comes from the Latin ex-patriate -  a person who lives outside the homeland. Expats are usually called middle-income or wealthy foreigners who move with a small business to another country, or highly skilled foreigners who are invited as a key specialist or top manager for a long-term employment contract.

Expats can be considered foreigners with work permits as a High Qualified Specialist (HQS) - such work permits are valid for 3 years, HQS worker can apply for a residence permit and all HQS workers benefits apply to his family.

Previously, classic expats were Italian architects, who directly created the beautiful city of St. Petersburg.

Now the term expat is more often used in the business press or if one does not want to call the head of a large enterprise a migrant or, even worse, an illegal alien (a gastarbeiter).

Legionary

Legionary is a foreign employee working in the field of team sports (football, basketball, volleyball, etc.) in a foreign country. That is, any foreigner footballer called legionnaire.

The term legionary is rooted not in the soldiers of the Roman legion, but in the contract soldiers of the French legion, which is 95% staffed with foreign nationals.

A gastarbeiter (a guest worker).

The most common and worst word used in relation to foreign citizens in Russia.

The word «gastarbeiter» has German origin: gast arbeitar - an invited worker. In principle, there is nothing bad or offensive in the word gastarbeiter, but:

In the early 40s of the twentieth century, immediately after the start of World War II, workers from Eastern Europe pulled into the German Empire of the Third Reich, who were not as strong allies as Italy and Japan, but were loyal to the leader of Nazi Germany and his plans to seize the world - Romania, Slovakia, Poland and so on.

Since these states were allied or loyal to fascist Germany, their citizens worked in factories not only for a bowl of food (like Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians and Jews who were forced to work), they were also paid money.

True, they paid money to such workers only at the beginning of the war. When the course of the Second World War changed, and the affairs of Nazi Germany went downhill, such workers became almost the same slaves as workers who were forcibly driven to Germany.

So - these workers were called by the indigenous population in several terms - tsvangsarbayter (a forced worker), civilianbayter (a civilian worker) and ostarbeiter - a worker from the east.

The population of Russia uses a similar word in the attitude of foreign workers - a gastarbeiter.

It does not adorn us at all.

Moreover, the population of the country that made the main contribution to the victory over fascism, that lost several million lives in the Second World War itself adopted and uses very incorrect vocabulary in relation to workers from other countries.

The term guest worker is so widely used in society that even news leaders on federal channels, officials and deputies are not ashamed to use it.

What is interesting for some reason  - foreign employees of TNT or Friday channel, foreign football players playing in Russian Premier League clubs, heads of large Russian enterprises are not called guest workers.

Why these foreigners are not called guest workers? After all, the rules for the design of a basketball star and a janitor are not that different! Apparently the whole thing is in the salaries of such legionaries. A person with a salary of 10,000 is called a guest worker, and if there is a salary of 1,000,000 it s a legionary.

And this is already discrimination.

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