Categorizing Countries
And the ambivalence of immigrants
I was having a discussion with a friend of mine recently on what makes a “first world” country. Some people consider the term to be implicity racist. However, it originated in the late 1940s, which was both a more racist and less politically correct time than the modern era.
While I want to avoid offending, and I certainly do not want to be racist, at the same time, I’d heard differing opinions on the term made me decide to do a little research and write about the generally accepted definition.
I first heard the term when I was a child. The world was apparently divided into three parts. There was the “first world”, the “developing” countries, and the “third world”.
The type of categorization was common among the British, who divided both the natives of their own country and those they colonized according to their own standards. And they judged based on that.
Being a child born in India, there was a part of me that resented these categorizations, particularly since India was considered “third world” when I was younger.
