How is an expat different from a "migrant worker"?

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"Immigrant" and "migrant worker" are not the only terms people use to subconsciously distance themselves from those who have moved to work in their country. The most loaded term, which I somehow forgot to mention, is "alien," or the even more remote "permanent resident alien."

Those terms make those working abroad seem literally as if they're from a different planet.

I can tell you, I've even been an "illegal alien" before-- living and working on an expired visa-- and I never once thought of myself in that way. Why? I don't know.

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