I never thought this deeply about these terms before.
Your definition satisfies me. I guess, because of the media, when I hear the word "immigrant" my mind does conjure up images of Hispanics or something. It's weird, considering that where I live I probably never saw a Hispanic immigrant. This is what TV does to you.
I think whenever I had to refer to a person's status, I just described exactly what they did: "he came here to study" or "he came here to make money and go back after he's earned a lot" or "most of what he earns he sends back to his family in X country".
I can see the Guardian's point, and it's probably one worth making, just to raise awareness. But I'd prefer it in the form of a paper making an academic or linguistic or feminist point, rather than an attack to raise oneself morally above others. I think people have an agonistic nature that no longer finds an outlet (sports are stupid and being a polemical atheist is, for some reason, bad), so they got nothing left but to attack people on subtleties. I often find myself agreeing with liberal points, but thinking "why all the fuss about this minor issue? aren't there more important topics worth our attention?"
I think these PC times we're living in are just a fashion that'll go away. If I know anything about humans, they get bored easily. This won't last. They'll get bored and switch to the Bill Maher side.
I beg to differ. Most of the voices of SJW's complaining about racism, cultural appropriation and so forth are typically coming from those ironically privileged, college educated wealthy middle class. Their lives have been set up by the previous generations to be incredibly comfortable and free, and they use that position increasingly to push a narrative that defies reality.
They cry foul when a woman wears a traditional Chinese dress to a wedding because she's white and thus it is racist. Ask any Chinese and they'll say it's totally fine - it shows appreciatioon for their culture.
You will see them cry foul at the 'racism' Einstein has recently been caught out writing on the Chinese. The Chinese themselves say it's fine, just sounds like he's describing factual events. But it doesn't matter what the 'victims' of the narrative think, that doesn't fit the narrative.
This phenomenon is growing, where the middle class wealthy 20-somethings are forcing groups to feel what they tell them to feel, lest they risk being an outcast and a bigot. It's really quite bizarre and if it IS a fashion, it has a long way to go before it dies out. At least a generation or two...
I can only see the Guardian's point in that Immigrant and expat have certain connotations from stereotypes - based in fact - but to say expat is a term for white people just isn't true. I really don't know why they felt the need to do that. Frustrating =/
Big part of the blame belongs to those who are too eager to apologize. So many celebrities do nothing wrong and yet express profuse remorse after their tweets or whatever have been intensely scrutinized and subtle mistakes perhaps found. This is like backing down before a troll. Fear makes them stronger, like the new Stephen King IT movie. They, or the movement, see all those celebrities—otherwise untouchable, belonging to a different realm—backing down before accusations made online, and they feel they've now discovered a way to match them in status: "I can tell a celebrity they're wrong and have them fall on my feet and beg for forgiveness!" If celebrities instead told them to screw off like someone like Ricky Gervais does, there'd much less force to the movement.