Meaning
A mindset fixed on going abroad, or fascinated with foreign ways — sometimes to the point of looking down on local life and things. Someone with 'farrin mind' is forever dreaming of 'foreign', prizing imported goods, overseas fashions, and the returnee's status above homegrown ways, and the phrase can carry a note of criticism for this turning away from one's own. It describes an attitude and an aspiration rather than a person actually overseas, and it speaks to the deep pull of migration on the Jamaican imagination.
Examples
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Since him come back him have farrin mind, nuttn yah good enuff.
Since he came back he has a foreign mindset, nothing here is good enough.
'nuttn yah' = nothing here; captures the disdain for local things the phrase implies.
-
Shi have farrin mind from shi likkle.
She has been set on going abroad since she was little.
Here it means aspiration to migrate rather than snobbery.
-
Nuh mek farrin mind mek yuh figet weh yuh come from.
Don't let a foreign mindset make you forget where you come from.
'mek...mek' construction: 'don't let X cause you to...'; a common Patois causative pattern.
Origin
Compound of 'farrin' (Patois form of English 'foreign', meaning abroad, especially the US, UK or Canada) and 'mind'. 'Farrin' has become almost a proper noun for 'overseas'.
How it’s used
Can be neutral (ambition to migrate) or critical (pretentiousness). Context and tone decide. Common among a population with deep migration ties, so the aspiration itself is widely understood and not always mocked.