Are you really lecturing me on that?
In UK Africans are immigrants. Arabs are immigrants. Asians are immigrants. Eastern European are immigrants.
However, Brits living abroad are expats because they can’t be at the same level as other ethnicities or nations. They are superior. Immigrants is a term set aside for "inferior races" or "inferior nations".
According to Miriam-Webster:
- the word “Expatriate†is actually a verb or an adjective and means someone “living in a foreign landâ€.
- the word “Immigrant†is a noun and means “a person who comes to a country to take permanent residenceâ€.
If we go only by these definitions above, I see one major distinction that sets them apart. Immigrants have an intention to stay – whereas for the expatriates this intention isn’t mentioned and isn’t clear.
So retiring in Spain as a Brit makes you Expat or Immigrant? Rhetorical, of course.
Immigration means people coming into ones country, so British people wouldn't describe Brits moving abroad as immigrants.
That said, the word immigrant has become associated with the anti-immigration movement, which in turn has become associated with racism, so I take your point that the word has negative implications.
EDIT: I also acknowledge that 'immigrant' has become more of a blanket term than the strict definition I gave above.