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What is the polite way to refer to an undocumented worker? Someone who is living in this country illegally, because they don’t have working papers?

–B.D., Providence

An ‘undocumented worker’ is a gentler way to describe an ‘illegal immigrant.’

Whatever you do, don’t describe a persona as an ‘illegal immigrant.’ Or ‘illegal’ anything. The word ‘immigrants’ is as passe as ‘wetbacks.’ The kindest and therefore the most polite expression is to say, “undocumented workers.”

~Didi