refugee, IDP, evacuee

[Chris Waigl]

Jonathan Lighter wrote:

>Not a reply to any particular message, but just to head off any misunderstanding.
>
>When I wrote that the idea that American citizens are, essentially, "too special"  to be called refugees was racist on its face, I wasn't being ironic or sarcastic.
>
>I'll leave it to others to debate whether "racist" in this context may be semantically prohibited. Like "refugee."
>
[Inserting this post somewhat arbitrarily into the tread ...]

The debate is still spreading. Here's another AP article
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5260379,00.html>,
which mentions Jackson again:

----
"It is racist to call American citizens refugees," the Rev. Jesse
Jackson said, visiting the Houston Astrodome on Monday. Members of the
Congressional Black Caucus have expressed similar sentiments.
----

... and Bush:

----
President Bush, who has spent days trying to deflect criticism that he
responded sluggishly to the disaster, weighed in on Tuesday. "The people
we're talking about are not refugees," he said. "They are Americans and
they need the help and love and compassion of our fellow citizens."
----

A Google News search turns up a collection of recent articles here
<http://shorl.com/gikamymasojy>.

I'm more familiar with the debate (British, but modulo language, similar
ones are going on all over Europe) about calling asylum seekers
"refugees" (and certainly not "bogus asylum seekers), even if they
haven't been granted asylum status by the competent authorities (yet, or
not at all). In this context, employing "refugee" is typically
considered as showing them respect, and not disdain. (In German, the
xenophobes have managed to give "Asylant" a pejorative connotation.)

Chris Waigl
just reporting