Really appreciate your insights on this, and can understand tribalism in the context of being treated as an outsider. Also, even in countries where foreigners’ work rights are relatively not that much worse than the locals (Australia), there is still plenty of people being taken advantage of because they’re afraid of losing their visa (people not on permanent visas).
I think your analysis makes sense, because the Mandarin speakers I’ve heard also don’t refer to Australian born Chinese as 外国人 (foreigners), but rather as 华人 (something like ethnically Chinese). So I do suspect they’re using 外国人 as an ethnic catch all for any races not historically from China.
Perhaps I’m missing something, but I still find this use interesting, because 国 (country) doesn’t just refer to China, but any country in general（法国，德国，美国）this makes my understanding that speakers are always speaking from the perspective of their country of origin, rather than where they physically actually are.
Really appreciate your insights on this, and can understand tribalism in the context of being treated as an outsider. Also, even in countries where foreigners’ work rights are relatively not that much worse than the locals (Australia), there is still plenty of people being taken advantage of because they’re afraid of losing their visa (people not on permanent visas).
I think your analysis makes sense, because the Mandarin speakers I’ve heard also don’t refer to Australian born Chinese as 外国人 (foreigners), but rather as 华人 (something like ethnically Chinese). So I do suspect they’re using 外国人 as an ethnic catch all for any races not historically from China.
Perhaps I’m missing something, but I still find this use interesting, because 国 (country) doesn’t just refer to China, but any country in general（法国，德国，美国）this makes my understanding that speakers are always speaking from the perspective of their country of origin, rather than where they physically actually are.
Language is interesting!