Reply to I'm an American expat living overseas, AMA

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why do you refer to yourself as an expat? Is that just the white term for immigrant?[/quote]

In the UAE all non locals are called expats, whether they are white Americans/British/Australians, or brown Pakistanis or Indians or Filipinos. They will never, no matter how long they live in the UAE, get citizenship or permanent residency or access to any of the social benefits reserved for locals.

As been pointed out several times already, there's a pretty clear distinction between expat and immigrant. Immigrants are people who make a permanent move to a new country, like the waves of immigrants into the US. Some immigrants may eventually move back to their home country after a prolonged absence but usually by that point they've received citizenship or permanent residency in the host country.

Expats are temporary migrants who live in a country for a period before moving on and are not considered or treated as potential future citizens.

Good luck in trying to turn it into a racial subject when it is not. There are Japanese and Korean expats working abroad. There are Jordanians and Egyptian and Indian and Pakistani expats working abroad. There are Filipino expats working abroad. The expat world is a pretty diverse world. [/quote]

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