These words pertain to someone who does not belong, either at all or as yet, to the group in which he finds himself. Foreigner specifically indicates that someone is a native or citizen of a nation other than the one he is now living in or visiting. The word can theoretically be used in neutral description, but in the past it was so often used to express suspicion or disapproval that it is difficult to avoid this tone completely even in the most innocent use: the foreigners who moved in across the street from us. A foreigner who intends to remain permanently in his new country can be more neutrally referred to as an immigrant . Although this word, too, could once be used pejoratively, its use as a precise legal term has kept it more viable and neutral than foreigner : an immigrant’s visa. Until an immigrant becomes a citizen of the new country, providing that is his intention, he is known legally as an alien , that is, someone who resides in a country but is not a member of it: All aliens must register annually with the Department of Immigration. Once a citizen, such a person is no longer an alien , but he might still be regarded as an immigrant by others so long as his speech, clothes or living habits reflect his country of origin and remain in contrast to the national norm. The xenophobic or unfriendly onlooker could, in fact, call such a naturalized citizen a foreigner to express his own intolerance for any departure from the norm.

The remaining words are all more general and wider-ranging in their implications. Stranger can indicate anyone who is not known to someone else or who is not familiar with or accepted as part of some group: She hurried past the beckoning stranger ; great excitement when strangers came to the remote settlement. Newcomer can refer more informally to an immigrant , but applies more widely to a person only recently accepted into a group, yet still largely unfamiliar with it: a newcomer to Auckland. The word can also suggest an initiate to any area of experience: a newcomer to poetry. Where newcomer suggests recent membership, outsider stresses alienation from or rejection by a group: backblock people who were wary of outsiders ; a boy who didn’t have many friends in his class but preferred to remain an outsider ; Both labour and management refused to call in an outsider to mediate the dispute.