Immigrant or Expat?

While still in Guatemala, a post about about expats versus immigrants was making the rounds among my very international group of friends.  I felt vaguely guilty as I read the article, which accused everyone who used the term "expat" (myself included) of abusing white privilege at the best, and racism at the worst.  After all, the article argued, why use one term to talk about mostly white people living abroad, and another term to talk about mostly non-white people living abroad?  It was a good point, I admitted, and I certainly never thought of myself as an immigrant, and yet, I still wasn't convinced I was WRONG to call myself an expat-there seemed to be a distinction in the two terms. 

Now, over a year later, and an ocean away, I feel more convinced I'm right because I no longer feel like an expat.  My life here is more settled, more (possibly) permanent, more locally administered.

For the first time ever, my salary is in the local currency. I earn euros instead of dollars, and they're direct deposited to my French bank account. My mother is probably glad that her days of depositing paychecks and making international transfers for me are drawing to an end. 

I own a car and I no longer have an American license (I actually don't have any license at all, just a very fancy temporary permit, but that's another story...). 

I have a residence visa here which eventually gives me the right to apply for citizenship if I meet the other requirements.  In every other country I've lived in I haven't had resident/immigrant status, even when I had multi-year visas. 

We purchased every piece of furniture in our apartment, which is such a difference from the pre-furnished and partially furnished apartments and houses I've had until now.

I have a French tax id number, and while I honestly know nothing about the paperwork since Cristian filed for us jointly, I'm paying into the French tax system.

It's hard (crazy? ridiculous?) to call yourself an immigrant when your employer, main bank account, driver's license, health insurance, and taxes are all in your home country.  But now that all of that is here (or moving here... health insurance is still a work in progress and the real driver's license might take a few more months) calling myself an immigrant seems much more apt than before, and calling myself an expat seems, well, mostly like white privilege- like I don't want to cast myself in the role of an immigrant, leaving my home country in search of better opportunities elsewhere.  I'm still not fully embracing the term immigrant (the word "permanent" is in the definition of immigrant, and we're not ready to commit to permanent, yet...), but in some ways, I am in search of better opportunities.  Five weeks paid vacation as a norm, universal (free) pre-school starting at 3, inexpensive college education, universal health care, and mandatory paid maternity leave (and even some limited paternity leave) are all things we consider as we think about whether to stay or not, and where we can envision eventually raising a family.  Also, the cheese.  Have I mentioned the cheese? 

What about you?  Do you consider yourself an immigrant or an expat? Or are you living in your home country, and never needed to consider how you define yourself on that level?