In the lexicon of human migration there are still hierarchical words, created with the purpose of putting white people above everyone else. One of those remnants is the word “expat”. - Halil

expat is a term reserved exclusively for western white people going to work abroad. Africans are immigrants. Arabs are immigrants. Asians are immigrants. However, Europeans are expats because they can’t be at the same level as other ethnicities. They are superior. Immigrants is a term set aside for ‘inferior races’. - Halil

never thought about it this way before, interesting - Halil

Although expat can refer to both temporary and permanent residents, I always thought of it as temporary and immigrant as permanent. - Anne Bouey

I've wondered about this, though the first time I remember hearing the term it was used in a history lesson to describe both black and white Americans living in Paris in the early 20th century. The only times I can remember anyone contemporarily referred to as an "ex-pat" they've been white, and often have been living abroad for longer than the "immigrants" in the US on temporary work visas. - Jennifer Dittrich

It's not just about race. Actually, it is more about the status and profession of the person. A person with a higher social status and a job that requires hihger education, pays well and gives a position that is perceived to be more prestigious will be called an expat, regardless of his/her race or nationality while a simple worker will be called an immigrant. Likewise, you can well be a caucasian eastern european national working in a well to do northern european conutry and called an immigrant. It is also because the latter usually has little to no choice but to immigrate for a priper life while for the so-called expat it is not the case.   - grizabella

Yeah, the difference does seem to be mostly about privilege on multiple axes. - Victor Ganata

after posting my comment above, i saw this on fb from a polish guy, which is more or less in line with what i think...and it is first hand experience: "Non-Eastern European white people.* I was an immigrant in America when teenagers holding the confederate flag egged my house and the police hung up on my father because of his accent, and I'm an immigrant here in Europe when people ask me when I'm going to move back to Russia even though I haven't been there in 26 years. And from what I hear from my friends, being Polish or Romanian isn't all sunshine and unadulterated white privilege either. I've never heard of a "Polish expat." Of course it's different in that racists don't bother me when they just look at me, only when they learn where I'm from, but I've encountered enough people who changed their attitude towards me when after hearing my name that I find this article a little bit offensive. That being said, I agree with the general point and I realize I don't have to deal with the worst of it; discrimination is disgusting. I'm annoyed that it says white people don't have to deal with this, but just this morning I read an article about UKIP demonizing Polish immigrants in Britain. It's not white people, it's "the other" and that other takes many forms, and some of them are white. In school I felt personally guilty when they told us that white people caused slavery, but my Russian peasant ancestors were also the property of a wealthy landowner in the 1800's. Lumping people together by skin color doesn't help anybody with anything, "white people" is a stupid oversimplification of reality, and there are better ways to have this discussion." - grizabella

Sure, privilege (and the lack thereof) functions on multiple dimensions and distinctions are on a spectrum rather than between discrete categories. It's never all or nothing, black or white. - Victor Ganata

I've always thought of it as a world relative to the group. If I settle elsewhere then I am an expat. To the people in the area I'm settling I'm an immigrant. - Todd Hoff

Yeah, expat is closer to emigrant, not immigrant. - OCoG of FF, Jimminy

It probably varies from region to region, but my impression is that in the Philippines people from ASEAN countries and from other former colonies of European countries tend to get called immigrants while people from East Asia, Europe, or the Americas tend to get called ex-pats. It kind of seems to map along lines of privilege, particularly economic privilege and also by the perceived strength of the person's home country (and this perception can vary widely from person to person.) - Victor Ganata