Zugereister

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In countries where German is spoken (basically Germany, Switzerland and Austria), a Zugereister (literal translation from German: "someone who has travelled here [and stayed]") is someone who, for whatever reason (job, marriage, free will), has moved to a different region and settled there for good. They will have no or hardly any difficulty communicating with the locals but will forever be recognized by their accent and regarded by them as "not one of us". A man is ein Zugereister, a woman eine Zugereiste.

However, this phenomenon mainly applies to rural areas, whereas people who move to the large cities are usually not stigmatized according to where they come from.

People whose first language is not German are not referred to as Zugereiste (even if the concept of travelling from A to B and settling down at B is the same).

The word exists in many regional variants, with different spellings and pronunciations.

In Hamburg, Quitje is used with the same meaning. The word ultimately comes from Quittung (engl. acknowledgment). The -je ending is the Low German equivalent of the standard German diminutive -chen. To some Hamburgers, Quitje status extends to children, but is lost on grandchildren.