That's just some kind of language bifurcation by political affiliation in the US. The right-wing term for immigrants who didn't enter the US through ports with documentation is indeed "illegals", though it seems the word "immigrants" is as pejorative among that crowd. The left-wing term for immigrants, both domestic and international and irrespective of arrival method is "transplant" and is fairly pejorative as well. I don't think "transplant" is any more specifically humanizing.

It's just that documentation-status matters to one, and does not matter to the other.

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TFNA 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

"Transplant" is certainly not any kind of mainstream left term in the USA, and this is the first time I have ever heard the claim. The left counterpart of the right's "illegal immigrant" is instead "undocumented immigrant" vel sim.

It is amusing to talk to actual border officials, because the term in their lingo for people running across from Mexico is usually simply "alien", which always makes me think of The X-Files theme tune.

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arjie 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Haha, I have an Alien Number so I'm familiar with that. "Transplant" as the word for "immigrant" is pretty common in coastal California. Here are a few examples that should illustrate:

* The Bold Italic[0] - a popular San Francisco essay magazine talking about transplants

* Eric Adams is quoted by the WaPo prior to announcing his candidacy for mayor[1] (he was eventually elected mayor):

> “Go back to Iowa,” Adams, who is expected to be a top Democratic contender in New York’s 2021 mayoral race, told transplants. “You go back to Ohio! New York City belongs to the people that [were] here and made New York City what it is.”

* Great Replacement Theory is reframed[2]:

> ...multi-decades-old Black businesses and Black-owned or traditionally Black folk-rented homes are being replaced by a new population–some call them transplants.

I think it's pretty common lingo these days on the left. If you ask an LLM what a "transplant" is in the context of people, it can easily describe the term[3]. I say that only to say that it is commonly enough used as such that it is recognizable.

0: https://www.thebolditalic.com/the-last-black-man-in-san-fran...

1: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/01/21/adams-brook...

2: https://ourtimepress.com/say-it-aint-so-developers-target-sm...

3: https://claude.ai/share/bf6cfb17-314a-4e4b-b3eb-e99bbed07e86

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TFNA 3 hours ago | parent [-]

It is OK to simply admit that you didn't understand the context in which "transplant" was used and its (ir)relevance to this particular thread. To post three separate replies where you are reaching for a way to avoid admitting this by concocting some fantastical left-right difference, is not convincing anyone otherwise.

	▲	arjie 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I am simply conversing with people who are directly responding to me. But I hear you, and we will likely not encounter each other again on this site.

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delecti 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> It is amusing to talk to actual border officials, because the term in their lingo for people running across from Mexico is usually simply "alien", which always makes me think of The X-Files theme tune.

Along similar lines, it makes me think of Men in Black.

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nemomarx 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Transplant means anyone who moves into your city, in my experience. It has a kind of NIMBY ish or anti gentrification tone, like "NJ transplants don't understand like real new yorkers" but I don't think it refers to immigration specifically.

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arjie 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Exactly, either a domestic or international migrant. While right-wing ire is usually focused on international migrants, left-wing ire doesn't discriminate between domestic/international. It's build the wall rhetoric but oriented more towards localities as opposed to the US as a whole.

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strbean 3 hours ago | parent [-]

transplant isn't inherently pejorative. People who move cities will frequently refer to themselves by this moniker.

I've always literally never heard it used to refer to someone who migrated from another country. Only someone who moved domestically.

	▲	arjie 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> transplant isn't inherently pejorative. People who move cities will frequently refer to themselves by this moniker. A standard that also covers the n-word. > I've always literally never heard it used to refer to someone who migrated from another country. Only someone who moved domestically. Migrants are migrants. Anti-immigration sentiment restricted to domestic immigration alone is nor specifically more acceptable than that for foreigners.

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jmcqk6 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I have never heard the word transplant use that way. I prefer to simply use "immigrants."

I have heard liberals emphasize "undocumented" instead of "illegal" which makes sense to me.

	▲	arjie 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That's normal to say "immigrant" if you're neither right-wing nor aiming to use it pejoratively. The blue-tribe pejorative for immigrant is "transplant". It's pretty common, I'd say, in the zeitgeist. As an example here's a popular content creator (Conan was on his show): https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vQ6TOleoCTY It's really not that different in use. A right-wing commentator might say "Immigrants need to assimilate and put down roots here, not just bring their own culture here" whereas a left-wing commentator might say (as you see in the above clip, paraphrased): "Transplants need to put down roots here and volunteer to join the community"

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6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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