I believe the nuance is in how to decide if &quot;left their home country&quot; is more important than &quot;came to another&quot;.<p>If a US citizen goes to Saudi Arabia for 5 years to work in the oil industry and earn a lot of money, then is that an expat or an immigrant?<p>If a Mexican citizen goes to the US for 5 years to work as a farm laborer and earn a lot of money, then is that an expat or an immigrant?<p>If a Cuban left for Miami when Castro came to power, is that an immigrant or an expat? Even after 50 years? For example, quoting <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.yahoo.com&#x2F;cuba-expats-america-weigh-return-island-163931492.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.yahoo.com&#x2F;cuba-expats-america-weigh-return-islan...</a> :<p>&gt; Cuban expatriates in America, including many who risked their lives to escape the communist island, are torn about whether to return after Havana and Washington formally reestablish ties next year. ... The surprise move, which clears the way for bilateral trade and normal diplomatic relations, also offers unexpected new options for Cuban-American exiles, who once believed that choosing one of the two countries meant forever closing the option of living in the other. ...<p>That would imply that someone can be an expat without believing there&#x27;s a chance of returning.<p>Similarly, <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.com&#x2F;travel&#x2F;story&#x2F;20130926-in-search-of-miamis-cuban-sandwich" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.com&#x2F;travel&#x2F;story&#x2F;20130926-in-search-of-miamis...</a><p>&gt; And in 1959, as generations of Cuban expatriates began to settle in Miami following the Cuban Revolution, both the city’s Cuban community and the sandwich thrived.<p>How do you get <i>generations</i> of expatriates?<p>My thought is that we don&#x27;t like Castro, so we focus on how the Cubans &quot;left their home country&quot;, so call them expats. While with Haitians, who don&#x27;t get the same treatment as Cubans, we focus on that they came to the US, and call them immigrants.