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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I disagree with the distinction between expats and immigrants and think the term is outdated. Travel and communication has become easier, so you can live in one country and have a foot in the other. Which means your stay could be as long as 20 years without ever fully integrating, but staying true to your roots and raising your kids as part of the home country culture.
Immigrants is what new arrivals were called a century ago. They had no chance of ever going back and maintaining contact with their home country was limited to letter writing.

Immigrants are seen as a lower social class to expats, so I believe that is why some expats do not like the term.
[/quote]

I don't think you've ever been an expat. If you'd been one then you'd know that the expat world calls itself expats, not immigrants. There are scores of expat forums that uses the word expat, not immigrants. There are scores of expat clubs that uses expat, not immigrants. The terminology used by local governments and publications in countries with large expat populations (The Gulf, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, and so forth) is very much expat, not immigrants. And for good reasons. Expats are temporary. Immigrants often are not.

In the UAE the lowly paid workers are all called expats. Because they are not local residents, nor are they immigrants.

The distinction between making a temporary move abroad for a work assignment or corporate relocation with no intention of settling permanently in the new country, and a permanent move to a new country, even if you still keep close connection to your home country, is still a sharp division and speaks of two distinct groups of people. I don't know why you keep refusing to acknowledge the difference. Expat and immigrants are two proven and widely used terminologies that each have strong connotations that accurately reflects the status of the people. A family moving from Pakistan to Canada with intentions of settling permanently and obtaining the citizenship are immigrants. A family moving from Pakistan to work in the UAE for several years because the father's company sent him there to run the local office for a few years are expats. They are not the same.

You, along with some other well meaning but ultimately misguided people, are simply trying to turn the issue into one of white privilege or racism, when it is really not, especially in today's increasingly globalized world with a larger population of people from all sorts of countries and nationalities across the world working abroad for their employers for a few years or even decades but without taking residency or citizenship in the host countries. DC has plenty of expats working in the embassies and NGOs for a few years before returning home. Would you call them immigrants? [/quote]

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