Immigrant? Or “ex-pat?”

Exactly. In my experience, expats believe that at some point that they will return to their own country/culture. Most of those I've heard use the term are professionals with the visas tied to their employment.

It used to be a term mostly used by westerners, but I've met Indians, and Asians using the term too. Language changes over time, as does those who use it to help adjust to those they hang out with, or work with.

With that kind of conclusion to your rant, you're not exactly encouraging people to post their thoughts. Every expat you've met is a racist ****. Yup.

Whereas most expats I've met are normal people, with normal views, and are generally quite tolerant due to their experiences living/working in foreign cultures. They have to be.. because they're there long-term.

I wouldn't view those moving to the Spanish islands/Spain as being the same as expats around the world. The British and the Spanish have their own particular history, and racist views are common on both sides. You should hear Spanish people talk about the immigration from North Africa.. and you'd probably consider the British rather tame in comparison. Or not.

I call myself an expat because that's what I'm called in the countries I live in. In Asia it's very common for governments to describe foreigners living long-term there to be expats... so I used the term they use. That's probably due to the heavy American and British influence on English in the region. I don't place any real difference between immigrant and expat. Both have the possibility of settling, and both have the same possibility of finishing their time abroad later returning home again.

There's no natural connection between expat/migrant and racism. That's entirely due to the person involved, and what they think/say.

This is the exact modern definition of expat vs. immigrant.

Your sister had no intention of living in America for the rest of her life. She had no intention of her grandchildren growing up there. Mexicans in America, whether legal or illegal, plan on staying there forever.

No amount of pretending that immigrant is a naughty word will change the fact that expat is temporary, just like your sister. An immigrant is not temporary.

It boggles my mind that people cannot differentiate these two ideas. First or second generation Americans don't talk about how their expat grandparents came to Colorado. They talk about how they emigrated to there.

I'd call that poster's sister an illegal immigrant (not totally clear whether she had no plans to stay permanently in the US - as many illegals from Ireland do).

To be fair, ex pat refers to the senior executive management types. Privately educated. They usually spend a couple of years in a country with the intention of returning home afterwards.

The Brits didn't call the prisoners "ex pats" when they were shipping them off to Australia back in the day. They were convicts.

Immigrants, by contrast, is a more broad brush term that refers to anyone who comes to a country to work, who have an open ended plan, no predetermined plans to return.

Why am I explaining this. We all know the difference, so stop pretending it's hypocrisy when it's just not.