> but if that's what they want to call themselves, I don't care. > That said, poor immigrants will rarely mix with the less poor immigrants from the same count

> but if that's what they want to call themselves, I don't care. > That said, poor immigrants will rarely mix with the less poor immigrants from the same country, regardless of nationality --for the most part. This has nothing to do with who mixes with who. Why did you choose to call those associated with "poor" as immigrants, but feel like calling the ones who call themselves expats expats? [I truly mean no personal attack or offense here, I'm just using your comments as a case-in-point] Media (including articles such as OP) have always associated immigrant with people from poorer (less-white) countries, and expat with the others. This is understandable, since "expat" is what everyone prefers to call themselves with the connotations that have grown to be associated with the two terms, but the rich white strata of the world are in command of most of the media. But a kid can wish that the world recognized this and didn't try to defend it. Let me tell you a little secret, noone wants to be called an immigrant. It's an exclusionary term meant to identify an outgroup, against whom it is ok to practice some discriminatory behavior. As a first-gen US resident brown person, people laugh if I refer to myself as an expat in context rather than an immigrant. If you're from a rich country (usually == if you're white) then you can call yourself an expat and everyone nods their heads solemnly. This is the reality. Note that none of these people care whether either me or said white person is planning to stay in the US permanently or not, brought over by an overseas company or not.