[def_true_false]

EU citizens mostly don't think in English at all... In most languages you would call someone who moves abroad an emigrant or something similar. From the point of view of the new country, they are obviously an immigrant. The word for people from poor countries is refugee or "economic migrant".

[amrocha]

That's true in their native language, but it's common for high status Europeans to use the term expat when speaking English as well. And in my experience, most European immigrants speak English to a conversational level.

It's likely not an intentional choice, but a learned one, since other westerners around them use that term.