'Jack and Jill emigrated from the valley when they immigrated to the hill'

Leslie Berestein Rojas | August 22nd, 2011, 6:45pm

Having just written "emigration, vs. immigration" in my last post, I found this little piece in the Mail Tribune of southern Oregon amusing. A reader named Ruth sent in a question to a "Since You Asked" column inquiring about the terms emigrant (one who leaves his/her country to settle in another) vs. immigrant (one who arrives in a new country to live) after visiting a place called Emigrant Lake. From the answer:

Source: Mailtribune
Via: Google News

Well, Ruth, the whole emigrant/immigrant thing is sort of a tomato/to-mah-to thing ... which reads horribly when written.

A person can be both an immigrant and an emigrant at the same time depending on whether they're described by where they're going versus where they're coming from.

An example would be "Jack and Jill" emigrated from the valley when they immigrated to the hill.

" m.mailtribune.com