 "auslandsdeutsch") is a concept that connotes German citizens, regardless of which ethnicity, living abroad, or alternatively ethnic Germans entering Germany from abroad.Today, this means a citizen of Germany living more or less permanently in another country (including expatriates such as long-term academic exchange lecturers and the like), who are allowed to vote in the Republic's elections, but who usually do not pay taxes to Germany but in their resident states.In a looser but still valid sense, and in general discourse, the word is frequently used in lieu of the ideologically tainted term "Volksdeutsche", denoting persons living abroad without German citizenship but defining themselves as Germans (culturally or ethnically speaking).