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Is "foreigner" a word that some people may get offended at?
A Japanese person learning English used to use "foreigner" as a translation of 外国人 (gaikokujin). However, a native speaker of English told her that it shouldn't be used, and she's come across an entry in an English to Japanese dictionary saying (according to her) that the word has negative connotations.
Is this true? If so, are there more appropriate alternatives?
Why should it be negative? It's just a statement of fact. People can be a foreigner in lands that they have not come from.
Andrew Grimm, you mentioned that this question was in a Japanese context so maybe the idea of the word foreigner being negative is something from Japanese culture? I know how strict Japanese people can be in terms of manners and etiquette.
The only way that I could think of the word being offensive or negative in the English language is if it is used to define or dismiss people. For example, saying something like "they don't matter because they're just a foreigner".
Unquestionably there are contexts where referring to someone as a foreigner (an outsider or interloper; a person from outside one's community) could be considered offensive. If you follow that link, you'll find that most in the vast majority of cases, to "call someone a foreigner" is implicitly negative/rude.
That would particularly be so if the person concerned doesn't consider himself to be "foreign" in the current context (perhaps a Glaswegian or a Falklander talking to some Cockneys in a London pub, for example). Also, there would be contexts where a person would rather others didn't call attention to their "foreignness" (a "Westernised" Arab talking with those same Cockneys, in a conversation focussing on whether police anti-terrorism measures should Stop and Search "foreign-looking" people more often than those who appear to be of more typically "native" descent).
I think foreigner is similar to, say, homosexual, in that because it is/was often used pejoratively, the word itself can acquire negative connotations. So even if the speaker (and/or audience) don't have the relevant prejudice, the "potentially loaded term" would often be avoided in favour of more "neutral"...
people from other countries, nonnatives, nonresidents, etc.
I teach college in a state university, and I avoid calling anyone "foreign" because the term also means "strange, odd, or unfamiliar," which are words that often carry negative connotations. I refer to students from other countries as international students, because I see the term "international" as more objective and less offensive.
Ironically, "foreigner" is an English word I hear being used almost exclusively by...foreigners.
I would generally consider it to be a rude or negative word, simply because in polite conversation there wouldn't be a reason to use it instead of a different, more polite or more specific word.
For example, if I wanted to say that someone who is not from America, where I live, is foreign, I would refer to their place of origin instead. For instance if they were from Egypt I would call them "an Egyptian." I would simply say "He is Egyptian" rather than "He is a foreigner."
When referring to a group of people who are "foreigners," or to the concept of being foreign, I think there are less clumsy ways to say that. For instance, if I were to refer to people travelling to America I would call them "travellers." If I were to refer to people living in America without citizenship I might say "non-citizens," or in other contexts "immigrants."
There simply isn't a case I can think of where "foreigner" could not be replaced by a more polite, less stigmatizing or less general term.
Only when hearing people speak English in non-English speaking countries do I hear the term "foreigner" used casually. It is more of an artifact of imperfect translation I think.
