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In practice, nothing; but if brits can call themselves expats abroad (which they do even when they’ve no intention to ever go back, the attempts at language sophistry are a laughable attempt at justifying exceptionalism and casual racism), then I can call myself expat here.

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Yes, that's certainly fair. Hopefully I didn't offend.

I'm Irish, but once was an immigrant/expat in the US (in that I intended to stay permanently and to become a citizen, but things ended up not working out that way). I always thought of myself as an immigrant, but there were a lot of people I met who called themselves expats and never immigrants. Some almost seemed offended by the word. I think your comment about exceptionalism probably captured the reason why.

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