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[–]vitunrotta 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It's not just the word immigrant but for rich, white people, but an important identifier for us global nomads.

Never thought of it from that point of view, to be honest. Good points, and yes - for your situation the word seems to fit.

I've personally only ever seen it used by predominantly white people from very rich countries - in a weird way of trying to "differentiate" themselves from the gasp terrible IMMIGRANTS. The sad truth is that very few POC tend to use the word expat even if it would make sense (like in your case), or if they do, they're looked at like a literal frog leapt from their mouths.

The country I've settled in (Portugal) has a long, nasty history of colonization so there's a lot of people living in here that came from the previous colonies over the past decades. They are still in many cases treated like second-class citizens. But I digress! I guess that's a whole different topic altogether, but thanks for your thoughts on the word and what it may or may not mean to different people. :)