Expat: the Colonizer’s Nickname for Immigrants Who Refuse to Be Called Immigrants

It presents itself as neutral, cosmopolitan, even aspirational - an elegant label for people who choose to live abroad. But look closely, and the veneer cracks.

“Expat” is not a synonym for immigrant. It is a racial, economic, and geopolitical marker - a linguistic loophole designed so that certain groups (almost always white, Western, and passport-privileged) never have to be mistaken for the very people they spend a lifetime othering.

In practice, “expat” is the colonizer’s nickname for the immigrant who refuses to be called an immigrant. The word exists to allow privileged migrants to move through the world without carrying the weight, suspicion, or stigma that the West attaches to immigration - especially immigration from the Global South.

Immigrant vs. Expat: An Invisible Border Drawn by Privilege

When a Moroccan moves to France, he’s an immigrant. When a Frenchman moves to Morocco, he’s an expat. Same action. Same decision to relocate.Two completely different social meanings. Why?

Because “immigrant” has been systematically framed as a problem - someone escaping poverty, someone who must justify their presence, someone expected to assimilate and never disrupt.

Meanwhile, “expat” evokes freedom, choice, professional opportunity, and above all, innocence. The expat is never seen as a burden; he is seen as an asset, even when he contributes to gentrification, economic displacement, and cultural imposition.

This is not accidental. It is the linguistic aftershock of colonial thinking.

The Racist Architecture Behind the Terminology

Most immigrants move for better living conditions: to earn more, support their families, gain economic stability, or escape systemic vulnerabilities. Their migration is framed as need.

Most expats also move for better quality of life: sunshine, lower cost of living, remote work flexibility, “discovering themselves.” But their migration is framed as lifestyle.

Notice the pattern:

When the poor migrate, it’s necessity; when the privileged migrate, it’s adventure. The difference is not in the journey itself, but in who the world allows to be romanticized.

And while immigrants are constantly scapegoated - accused of diluting national identity, “changing the culture,” or threatening job markets - expats often do precisely what immigrants are punished for, but without consequences:

They cluster in neighborhoods and price out locals. They impose their language and expect to be accommodated. They recreate their own cultural bubbles without integrating. They reshape the local economy according to their preferences. Yet nobody blames the expat for cultural or economic disruption. Nobody tells the expat to “go back to your country.” Nobody questions the expat’s contribution.

Because racism has always been more about who holds power than who crosses borders.

When an Immigrant Does It, It’s a Threat. When an Expat Does It, It’s Lifestyle Content.

The irony is almost poetic. Immigrants are asked to assimilate quietly. Expats build cafés, co-working hubs, yoga studios, and English-only enclaves - and call it “community.”

Immigrants are scrutinized for taking jobs. Expats openly take advantage of currency arbitrage to live comfortably in cheaper regions.

Immigrants are framed as a burden to social systems. Expats boast about how much “value” they supposedly bring to the places they move to.

The double standard is not just hypocritical; it is a reflection of the racialized hierarchy of global mobility.

A Word That Reveals More Than It Hides

“Expat” survives because it protects the fragile ego of those who want the benefits of migration without the stigma. It softens the colonial impulse, disguises dominance as curiosity, and ensures that Western mobility remains morally superior to everyone else’s.

But the truth is simple: If you leave your country to live in another, you are an immigrant.

Whether the world chooses to romanticize or demonize that fact says nothing about you - and everything about the system that categorizes human beings according to race, passport, and privilege.