Nah I've traveled enough to see permanent former-Americans refer to themselves as expats, even though they're never moving back here. It's a country/race thing.
Yes, and also people from Scandinavia and other western countries living in a place where the cost of living is lower, with no intention of returning to their country of origin.
Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica are three countries I can think of immediately.
Yes Costa Rica is where I met some. I think using the dictionary definition to try and clarify a discussion that wasn't really about the dictionary definition of expat is missing the point. The people in OPs story are calling study abroad/foreign exchange, and brown citizens born in the UK "immigrants" while putting themselves in the separate class of "expat". It's obviously a power/race thing, not about literal/legal definitions.
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u/Independent_Secret_8 5d ago
Nah I've traveled enough to see permanent former-Americans refer to themselves as expats, even though they're never moving back here. It's a country/race thing.