SAN ANGELO, TX — Over the past couple of weeks, we've covered the hot button topic of immigration. Some protesting the separation of parents from their children when crossing the U.S. border. Others supporting the current immigration laws. Our Brenda Matute is breaking down some of the terminology.
Amid different information constantly circulating through social media we wanted to make sure you know exactly what the difference between a migrant and an immigrant is.
To make sure we're accurate we dusted off the old’ dictionary for this one.
According to Merriam-Webster an immigrant is someone who comes to a country to take up permanent residence. Someone who's intention is to stay forever or at least a very long time.
A migrant is someone who moves regularly to find work especially in harvesting crops. This would be the case if someone moved from Texas to California in July to find work grape picking for the summer.
People can often confuse a migrant for an immigrant however simply because the word migrate is defined as moving from one country, place, or locality to another.