Expat or immigrant?

The word expat has come up every once in awhile in my blog postings and for those of you not in the know, an expatriate  "is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of their citizenship. The word comes from the Latin terms ex ("out of") and patria ("country, fatherland"). In common usage, the term is often used in the context of professionals or skilled workers sent abroad by their companies."

But isn't that the same thing as an immigrant? It seems that this topic circulates among expats every once in a while, and when it does, it usually sparks up a heated argument, as it's done twice within a few months in the Facebook-group called Nairobi Expat Social (NES, closed group for expats/immigrants in Nairobi)... Some people think it's a racist term used by white people to describe themselves as they work abroad, as if to lift themselves up above the ordinary, the black, the poor immigrants. Sort of like: "When we Westerns go to another country, we're expats, but when other people come to our country, they're immigrants."

If you're interested to read more about the dilemma, you can check out this article in The Wall Street Journal, a commentary on it in the Guardian or in Finnish here.

I discussed this with my boss, who has spent the last 15 years away from Finland, working in China and Kenya. He thinks it's very simple: if you go somewhere to work, you're an expat. If you're staying in a country permanently, you're part of the society, you're maybe even applying for a citizenship there or planning to do so, you're an immigrant. No matter the skin color. So coming from the Western world, the columns state that I am then an expat and not an immigrant. However Koutonin urges people to fight the term, as it's racist, and "deny their privileges of a racist system".

I'm sorry, but I have to ask: doing a basically unpaid internship here, which privileges do I have in my everyday life here in Nairobi?
I can't wear shorts even if it's 30 degrees out.
 I can't go alone anywhere after dark.
I don't have my residency yet, so entrances to museums and national parks cost 2-10 times more for me.
People try to screw me over for money left, right and center - one of the most irritating ones being every bleeping morning when the matatu guy charges me another price than the local sitting next to me. Like, if you're going to do that, at least be discreet about it. If it's equality you want, it works both freakin ways.

PS. My boss feels that the term expat doesn't even apply to me, as I'm not really paid for my work and I'm here only for 6 months. He thinks I'm more like a visitor.