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Depends on how much immigration, and under what conditions. Immigration in the form of "We've decided to send a whole load of our people to live there, and bring their form of government with them" certainly is imperialistic.

The Chinese actually at one stage were all set to go, with a huge fleet. But it got cancelled due to internal politics.

One of the interesting things of history is why various European powers gained such huge overseas empires while China didn't.

Do you have anything to add to the discussion besides that confession?

Well, the Pygmies got the Belgians, while the Khoi got the Dutch and then the British. And both groups still have living descendants.

The tech the Bantu tribes had, that the other Sub-Saharan peoples did not, was Iron Working. Nice sharp metal spearheads. What other Sub-Saharan peoples, you ask? Exactly. Though they hadn't finished off the Pygmies or the Khoi by the time the European powers arrived.

And then sent back to do more of it. Were the English colonists enslaving the Indians to mine silver?

Well, I deny that. And so did this guy: If his account is to be believed, Columbus was a monster.

It would have been better for those people to have been converted by Protestants. The Dutch were Calvinists, as where many of the early English settlers in the New World. Calvinism has it's own problems, especially in regard to missions. Ever actually read the 39 Articles? 🤨 Anglicanism is...

It should be noted that if we stick to the timeframe of the 16th-century, most of Africa does not enter the picture. The New World was where all the fun was - the Dark Continent got left until much later.

Net positive I suppose. The British Empire spread the Protestant faith, the Protestant work-ethic, Anglo-Saxon respect for individual rights and limiting the power of rulers, across a wide swath of the world. Uncounted millions of people will be going to Heaven who would otherwise have gone to...

But what is "generally agreed" isn't always what is actually true. The Spanish accidentally brought Smallpox to the New World... In terms of sheer bodycount, that probably knocks evil king Leopold into a corner... On the other hand, the Aztecs had it coming to them. Pity about all the other...

So not the Roman Empire then - but the British Empire, the French Empire, the Dutch and Portuguese trading networks, the Spanish looting and conquering spree across the New World, the German Empire, the Belgians... A very mixed bag. It's generally agreed that the Belgians were the worst.

The question as stated is too broad. There are various things that get called "imperialism" - and very often they have both good and bad elements.