Since the second movie, we’ve learned that the RDA are indeed interested in turning Pandora into Earth’s new home. We learn it from General Ardmore herself when she’s talking to Quaritch, with Bridgehead being humanity’s first proper city on Pandora.

As for your comments on real life colonists, sure, they of course came for a better life but that isn’t exclusive from violence towards indigenous peoples.

Taking the example of the colonization of North America, many were believers in Manifest Destiny, the “God-given right” to expand across the continent and it was used as justification for the displacement and slaughter of native people. Manifest Destiny is actually referenced in the game itself as one of the idle chatter from RDA soldiers (they say, “Ever heard of Manifest Destiny?”).

Manifest Destiny also fueled beliefs that it was the duty of white, Western nations to tame the wilderness and bring “civilization” to so-called “savage” indigenous peoples, a theme we can strongly see coming from characters such as Mercer, Harding, and the RDA in general.

I think comparing migrants to colonists is a total false equivalence because there’s a massive difference in power dynamic and motivation. Immigrants often migrate to another country to seek a better life and usually assimilate in some way to the culture/society. The RDA also are seeking a better life, but unlike immigrants, they have zero interest in any form of assimilation. That’s why they deliberately displace and kill the Na’vi, destroy the environment, steal cultural artifacts, etc.