• someguy3@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    immigrate /ĭm′ĭ-grāt″/ intransitive verb

    To enter and settle in a country or region to which one is not native.

    Yes colonists are immigrants. Everyone in North and South America are immigrants (even those that came by the bering land bridge).

    • nifty@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I guess that fair to some extent, the distinction I’ve made in the past is that people who were “settling” for a crown or a state were colonialists (see Spanish conquistadors, for example), and those who sought asylum from religious persecution or poverty were immigrants. I think if the French and English crown had not started wars in the early 1600s, the later English arrivals (think Plymouth Rock, not Jamestown) would have probably had a better time getting along with the Native Americans. But who can say now 🤷‍♀️