That's a fair answer: ambiguous status and what-not. It's worth noting though immigrants everywhere feel alienated culturally/linguistically all the time.

I apologize if my question came off as hostile, but it was meant to be to a certain extent! I've been here for 4 years now (leaving soon) and "expat" just rubs me the wrong way. It's a light term with an adventurous connotation that applies exclusively to Westerners; I've never seen third-world labor described as "expats" here, regardless of however permanent or transient their residence might be. At a time when the notion of immigration conjures up such hostility, it seems in poor taste to cordon off a subset of migratory activity as something distinct: "I'm not in your country, taking advantage of its resources; I'm simply outside my country." It doesn't help that many "expats" I've come in contact with have espoused remarkably reactionary opinions regarding foreigners in their home countries.

I can only speak for myself, but I left a $10/hr job in the US during a recovery that wasn't because I thought I could shake it better in Japan (studied Japanese in uni.) Even though I'm not going to wind up living here forever, I'm still the definition of an economic migrant.