I have always been fascinated with the way that cultures label things. For instance, when I was studying abroad in France, one of my professors was talking about bidonvilles, the equivalent of slums in English. I started talking to him about some bidonvilles that I knew of in the states and he quickly corrected me by saying that bidonville was only used for poor countries. In the U.S., these areas would be called ghettos (yes, it’s the same in French 
?). I then asked him, “Either way, aren’t they places where low-income/poor people are concentrated?”
Same goes for the word immigrant. Anyone who comes to the U.S. from a different country is called an immigrant. However, when Americans emigrate to another country, they get labeled as expats. Good ol’ Webster defines an immigrant as “a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence”. Now, I may be reading into this definition, but wouldn’t it apply in both instances?
See, what I find interesting in these examples is that it appears people create different words to describe the same thing out of discomfort and in most cases one sounds better than the other. So, while I’m living in Caracas I will be part of the “expat community”, even though my purpose there is no different than the Columbians or Bolivians that are automatically in the “immigrant community”.
By using these different labels, haven’t we just made one group of people feel better about itself by marginalizing another? What do you think about this practice? Are there any other examples of this that you’ve seen?
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I'm not sure I'd characterize the difference between expats and immigrants so bluntly, at least not in the case of foreigners living in the United States. Plenty of Europeans and Japanese (and to a rather lesser extent, Indians) in the United States refer to themselves as "expats," for the simple reason that while they are working in the United States, they have no intention of settling down permanently, let alone raising their families here. Sometimes expats become immigrants without ever making a conscious decision to emigrate permanently; it just creeps up on them, bit by bit. So many years here, children growing up as hyphenated Americans, permanent residency, citizenship … at some point, an expat can become an immigrant.
On the other hand, Americans overseas are almost always called "expats." Simply put, the default assumption is that you're only overseas for a while, and intend to go home sooner or later. Even when that's not true, most other people assume it to be true.
I agree that often expats can become immigrants without realizing it. In my experience, Americans will assume that anyone here from another country – whether it's the Indian on contract or the Philipino nurse – the assumption is that they have immigrated to the US for a "better life". In the case of Europeans and Canadians, I often hear the term expat used and I always thought it was because the perception is that they are less likely to come here for those reasons. ____I think where we often go wrong is simply "making assumptions". You never know someone's situation until he/she tells you. In this case, the result of those assumptions can assign labels with negative or positive connotations without verification.
I am an immigrant, though I called my blog "Expat Mama" (I also posted about the same terminology issue you mention: expat vs. immigrant, at one point.) (By the way, thanks for stopping by! I'm adding you to my feed reader!)
I agree with Deborah's comment. I don't really identify myself with either word. I don't seek out other "expats" to socialize with, yet since I am married to a Spaniard and living a very Spanish life, I don't really think of myself as an immigrant either, even though that's what I am.
And of course countless times I have heard disparaging comments made by Spaniards about "immigrants" made in front of me by people who know I am from the US– it is assumed that "immigrants" are from poor countries…