And That Is A Refugee

When you think of the word refugee what is the first thing that comes to mind? Take a second to close your eyes and try to picture what you think a refugee looks like. When I asked students here at UT to do this many of them said they saw: a short brown skin tone man with black hair jumping the border into the United States. After getting basicly the same reply from most of the students I asked I felt like it was safe to say that many people’s first thought when thinking of the word refugee is a Mexican.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary the earliest printed definition of the word refugee was in 1685. Its defines a refugee as, “ one who, owing to religious persecution or political troubles, seeks refuge in a foreign country.” The OED says at that time the English used the word when referring to, “ French Huguenots who came to England after revocation of the Edict of Nantes.” The word changed several times over the next three centuries before coming to the most recent definition recorded in the OED which simply defines a refugee as, “ some one driven from their home by war or the fear of attack or persecution” which was formed in 1914. The United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees 1967 Protocol formed a definition that was agreed upon by many countries (including the United States on November 1, 1968). According to it a refugee is:

A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.."

In this essay I plan to search for the true meaning of the word refugee, and answer the question posed after Hurricane Katrina, “ Can Americans be refugees in America?”

Also one of the most recent issues with the word refugee is when reporters from big news stations started to refer to Americans who had to leave their homes due to the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. During the events following the destruction of New Orleans and several other cities in the United States by Hurricane Katrina news articles and broadcastings covering the story went out all over the country. Pictures of men and women born and rasied in the U.S. searching for food, shelter, or just a way for their fellow Americans to take notice with captions under them reading “A Hurricane Katrina refugee searching for food.”

Many people argued that one cannot be a refugee in their own country. According to the associated press many people, “argued that “refugee” implies that the displaced storm victims, many whom have been black, are second –class citizens- or not citizens at all.” By calling people from America refugees it makes it seem like they don’t belong. President Bush said during a press conference that, “ The people we are talking about are not refugees. They are Americans.” But the words of the president couldn’t stop the press.

Even after that big time publishers like the AP and New York Times continued to refer to the displace citizens of New Orleans as refugees. According to the Associated Press both were using the word only where appropriate. Referring to someone as something they are not never seems appropriate to me but I guess that why I’m not in journalism. When Kathleen Carroll, Executive Editor of the AP was asked why she issued this statement:

"The AP is using the term ‘refugee’ where appropriate to capture the sweep and scope of the effects of this historic natural disaster on a vast number of our citizens. Several hundred thousand people have been uprooted from their homes and communities and forced to seek refuge in more than 30 different states across America. Until such time as they are able to take up new lives in their new communities or return to their former homes, they will be refugees."

After reading this comment I went back and looked up the word refuge. I felt like in every definition I found in the OED one sought refuge because he/she was running from something. The people of New Orleans weren’t running from anything. Yeah, they needed shelter because their homes were destroyed by the hurricane, but if those people had a choice they would still be in New Orleans.


Another issue in this debate is can one loss the refuge title? Some say yes because they feel that once a person becomes a US citizen then they no longer fall under the umbrella of being a refugee. While others say anyone that is not born a US citizen, yet they reside here in America will always be considered a refugee. Personally I think that the definition of the word plays a key role in this argument.

So what is a good definition for the word refugee? Well, let’s see. Most “refugees” flee their country for many reasons and come to America because they think they are going to have a better life full of opportunity. So for that reason along with others I feel that the perfect definition for the word refugee is, a person who leaves his/her country of birth, for any reason, and never returns. With this definition people in could not be labeled a refugee in their own country. Plus, once one becomes a refugee they will be one until they return back to their country of birth.