Valuing Diversity Means Using Correct Terms; Replace “Illegal Alien” With

“Undocumented Worker”

By Susan Klopfer

Author, Profit From Diversity; Getting Along With Others

Ana Smith, usually friending and receptive to newcomers, is talking with one of her team
members about a newly employed woman who has a “strange” last name. “I wonder where she’s
from. I’ll bet you she’s an illegal alien,” Ana whispers to a co-worker.

Quickly, Ana receives an unexpected reaction from a nearby team member, who has been
listening in to the conversation.

“Hang on, there. My name isn’t so common, and I was born in Oregon,” Jan Ishi calls over to
Ana and her friend. “You had better be careful what you’re calling someone at work!”

“Oh I didn’t mean anything bad, especially about you,” Ana says, as she grabs her coffee and
leaves the room red-faced.

So what is an “illegal alien” and would using another term, such as “undocumented worker,”
have been a more accurate or politically correct choice?

As we strive for diversity competence, it is critical to have a decent vocabulary and

understanding of words used to describe what goes on around us, if for no other reason than to
keep from offending each other.

Here is a short glossary of words especially important to know for describing some of the terms
used as people move from one culture or country into another.

A newcomer or someone legally settling into a new country, a settler, is referred to as an

immigrant. In turn, an emigrant or émigré is someone who moves away to another country
permanently, usually for political reasons.

Foreign nationals who violate U.S. immigration policies and national laws by entering or
remaining in the United States without proper permission from the United States government are
sometimes called illegal aliens, a term often considered a derogatory; undocumented worker is
the preferred term.

In the United States, there are an estimated 6.5 million undocumented immigrant workers
representing a vital workforce in manufacturing, service, construction, restaurant, and agriculture
sectors. They are among the most vulnerable and exploited workers in the United States, as
frequent victims of unpaid wages, dangerous conditions and uncompensated workplace injuries,
discrimination, and other labor law violations. Workers who attempt to remedy the abuse
routinely face physical and immigration-related threats and retaliation.There have been proposals
by some congressional members to grant temporary legal status to undocumented immigrant
workers currently residing in the United States.

Another word – culture – can be confusing. Coming from the Latin word cultura or cultivate, it
simply refers to “how things are done.” This refers to the total ways of living, behaving, using
language, communicating, thinking, and believing of a specific group, such as Americans or
Native Americans, for example. Culture also refers to a set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and
practices that characterize an institution, organization or group. Culture also refers to the values
of a group large enough to be self-sustaining over generations, so the Navajo or Dine people
would have their own culture. Culture is dynamic; it is always changing.

When an immigrant comes into a new country or culture, acculturation refers to their learning
and adopting “how things are done” in the new culture or society. Sometimes we use the term
cultural adaption. Those who have acculturated or culturally adapted would, for example, learn
and follow state driving rules or they would learn and follow school district requirements about
sending their children to school.

Unlike a temporary visitor, immigrants must find a new source of livelihood and build an
entirely new life. They also must decide how much value they place on keeping their original
cultural identify compared to starting and maintaining relationships with other groups in their
new culture.

If immigrants entirely give up their original cultural identity and move into full participation in
the new culture, they become assimilated. An assimilated person identifies with their new
country and not the ethnic group. Assimilation is a long-term and sometimes multigenerational
process.

Still another word, integration, refers to maintaining important parts of one’s original culture as
well as becoming an integral part of the new culture. One difference between integration and
assimilation is that under assimilation, groups disappear through intermarriage but in integration,
groups continue to exist. The words biculturalism and pluralism are also used to describe
integration.

Sometimes we use “corporate culture” when talking about the corporate world. Whether written
as a mission statement, spoken or merely understood, corporate culture describes and directs the
ways a company's owners and employees [are supposed to] think, feel and act. A business's
culture may be based on beliefs spelled out in its mission statement. It could consist in part of a
corporate symbol, like the rainbow-colored apple that symbolizes Apple Computer. Or it may be
found in values displayed – such as successful employees dressing in the same manner and
wearing the same brand of watch, sporting similar hair styles or vacationing at the same spot, say
a lavish golf resort.

Culture shock refers to anxiety, disorientation, and stress felt when in a new culture, including a
new country or even a new job. Reverse culture shock can occur when one returns to their home
country or culture.
Once when landing at an airport in Germany, because I don’t speak the German language, I felt
disoriented. Using airport public phones was very different than what I am accustomed too, so
after trying to make several calls unsuccessfully, I began to feel dizzy and angry. The sound of
people speaking German seemed amplified and I had to sit down and relax, take a few deep
breaths, to get over my culture shock.

Whether a person enters a host culture as a short-time visitor or as an immigrant, culture shock is
a typical response. It doesn’t always happen at first contact with the new culture, but for many
people it actually comes in waves or stages, according to some anthropologists who have studied
this phenomenon over the years.

Four more helpful glossary words included these:

Asylee refers to a person living outside the country of nationality who is unable or unwilling to
return to the homeland because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution. The
difference between an asylee and a refugee is that an asylee is applying for admission in the
country he or she is already in; a refugee is applying for admission from outside the country he
or she wants to enter.

Biculturalism is the ability to function in two cultures.

Diversity refers to the fact or quality of being different. Diversity recognizes any difference that
impacts on the equal treatment of people - including differences in race, gender, age, culture,
disability, religion, sexual orientation, mental illness, native language or any other characteristic
that helps to shape a person's being. In this context, diversity can include any way that people
differ. Diversity is not a legal term, such as affirmative action or equal opportunity.

English as a second language, ESL (English as a second language), ESOL (English for speakers
of other languages), and EFL (English as a foreign language) all refer to the use or study of
English by speakers with a different native language. These programs typically combine literacy
and language instruction. There are many differences between English and other major
languages making it difficult to become language fluent very quickly. Here is just one example:
Spanish speakers are used to employing a simple tense instead of a future one in casual
conversation: The Spanish used for She goes to a party also translates to She is going to a party:
Ella va a un fiesta.

The next time Ana hears about a new person at work, hopefully she will consider more than the
person’s strange name. Diversity affects all of us and understanding, managing and valuing
diversity requires new skills based on increased knowledge.