A note about terminology

In the first 3 sections of the FAQ, we have mostly used the term “immigrant” in the broad sense in which it is often used in the United States, to mean anyone who is foreign-born.

However, the term “immigrant” in U.S. law has a specific meaning. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defines an immigrant as “Any person lawfully in the United States who is not a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or person admitted under a nonimmigrant [visa] category as defined by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) section 101(a)(15).”

In practical terms, U.S. law defines an immigrant much more narrowly than common usage does as a lawful permanent resident with a green card. According to common usage, someone who is foreign-born and previously held a green card but has become a naturalized U.S. citizen is also an immigrant.

The word “migrant” is a broader term that can encompass anyone who is foreign-born and may have arrived in the United States in any of the other pathways, such as with a temporary visa or without authorization or who is in a quasi-status that provides temporary protection from deportation. But the term “migrant” can also include immigrants in some cases or is sometimes used interchangeably with the term “immigrant.” Ideally, persons who arrive through humanitarian pathways like asylum-seekers, asylees, and refugees should be specified as such, but common usage of the term “migrant” (for example, in news reports) often labels them simply as migrants, especially when their status or method of arrival is unknown.

In sections 4-7 of the FAQ, which focus on the different immigration statuses and pathways, such as green cards, temporary work visas, and different humanitarian protections, we do our best to refer to green card holders as immigrants and people in other temporary statuses as migrants, and to specify the humanitarian pathway or status—such as asylum-seeker or refugee—when applicable.