There isn’t really any ambiguity about the two terms. That’s a dog whistle by people who want to see racism where there is none. They usually say something alo

There isn’t really any ambiguity about the two terms. That’s a dog whistle by people who want to see racism where there is none. They usually say something along the lines of “so when black and brown skinned people go to Europe they’re immigrants. But when white people go to Japan they’re called expats?”. The omitted difference being that most white people going to Japan do not stay permanently. The japanese also differentiate between 移民 and 駐在員 (expat)