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Political Exiles: National Loyalists or Traitors?
- University of Michigan Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Who Represents the Nation's WilU 23 aspirants to power. They have less power to manipulate the national symbols in their behalf or to induce loyalty or impose costs on those who oppose them. Political Exiles: National Loyalists or Ttaitorsl The political debate within the boundaries of the nation-state expands and gains in intensity when it involves opponents of the home regime who are abroad. Political exiles have escaped legal control of the ruling claimant. They cannot be the objects of legal sanctions, although the regime can act against them indirectly. They are subject to the laws and the policies of their host country. Their ability to impose or reward loyalty is drastically limited. In most cases, indeed, "there is nothing to induce members to remain [active] ... other than their voluntary commitment"19 to the cause of return. The need of political exiles to establish their image as national loyalists is crucial not only for mobilizing purposes, but also as a defensive device to protect their national identity. For many political exiles the retention of national identity means living as strangers in their host country. Divorced from contact with their national milieu and culture, they are forced to adapt to a foreign environment and at the same time to negate it. While engaging in a constant struggle to organize and effect a return, the exiles seek to maintain a normal family life. Conflicting commitments, to their national cause on the one hand and to their family on the other, jeopardize their ability to serve either adequately. They often lose contact with the political realities in their home countr~ and fall victim to sharp generational as well as cultural conflicts with their children. Of Latin American political exiles in Europe in the late 1970s, Andrew Graham-Yooll, an Argentine exile in London, writes: Many Latin American political exiles in Europe ceased to be militant, blaming distance, language, lack of time or the host country for a decline in interest.... As the months passed ... the language of home became marked with accents or diales;ts or, in places of foreign tongues, the native speech became faultier and patchy. The jokes, songs, music, that were so dear, so filled with remembrances, became lost on the children. The distinguishing asset that is another nationality was at first disguised, then mentioned to boast of a greater worldliness; finally used only to escape generalisations.20 Th overcome a contradictory life, as Lewis Edinger writes, the political exile must try "to identify his cause with the national interest, Who Represents the Nation's WiW 23 aspirants to power. They have less power to manipulate the national symbols in their behalf or to induce loyalty or impose costs on those who oppose them. Political Exiles: National Loyalists or Traitors? The political debate within the boundaries of the nation-state expands and gains in intensity when it involves opponents of the home regime who are abroad. Political exiles have escaped legal control of the ruling claimant. They cannot be the objects of legal sanctions, although the regime can act against them indirectly. They are subject to the laws and the policies of their host country. Their ability to impose or reward loyalty is drastically limited. In most cases, indeed, "there is nothing to induce members to remain [active] ... other than their voluntary commitment"19 to the cause of return. The need of political exiles to establish their image as national loyalists is crucial not only for mobilizing purposes, but also as a defensive device to protect their national identity. For many political exiles the retention of national identity means living as strangers in their host country. Divorced from contact with their national milieu and culture, they are forced to adapt to a foreign environment and at the same time to negate it. While engaging in a constant struggle to organize and effect a return, the exiles seek to maintain a normal family life. Conflicting commitments, to their national cause on the one hand and to their family on the other, jeopardize their ability to serve either adequately. They often lose contact with the political realities in their home country, and fall victim to sharp generational as well as cultural conflicts with their children. Of Latin American political exiles in Europe in the late 1970s, Andrew Graham-Yooll, an Argentine exile in London, writes: Many Latin American political exiles in Europe ceased to be militant, blaming distance, language, lack of time or the host country for a decline in...