I have often seen people called "expats" (and even more often called themselves expats) when they were indeed immigrants - expecting to live the rest of their life in their (sometimes not so new) country.
An immigrant is an individual who moves to a country first, and looks for a job later,
Not in the definitions I know (Germany), but maybe that is for US?
Ah yeah I worded it badly it was meant to be grouped with the idea of connotation - fixed, thanks