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Whereas emigrants have likely chosen to leave one place and become immigrants in a different clime, not usually expecting to return, émigrés see exile as a temporary expedient forced on them by political circumstances. Émigré circles often arouse suspicion as breeding-grounds for plots and counter-revolution.
The American Revolution
Many loyalists that made up large portions of Colonial America, particularly in the South, fled America during and after the American revolution. Common destinations were other parts of the British Empire such as Upper Canada, Nova Scotia, Great Britain, Jamaica, and the British West Indies. The lands left by the fleeing Tories were often awarded by the new government to Patriot soldiers by way of land grants.
The French revolution
French refugees, former members of the nobility, Catholic royalist sympathizers, or anti-republicans, who were expelled by the Decree of 17 December 1791 and the Law of Suspects of 1793, following the French Revolution.
Some of the nobility who left France during the Revolution settled in bordering countries, which they sought to use as a base for counterrevolution. After the Storming of the Bastille, King Louis XVI of France directed several of the most conservative members of his court to leave the country for fear that they might be assassinated. Among this first group of émigrés were the king’s youngest brother, the Comte d'Artois, and Queen Marie Antoinette's best friend, the Duchesse de Polignac. Later, in coordination with the king's failed attempt to escape Paris, the king's other brother, the Comte de Provence, also emigrated.
The Russian revolution
Marx and Engels, in setting out the strategy for future revolutions in The Communist Manifesto, included the provision that the property of émigrés should be confiscated and used to finance the revolution — a recommendation followed by the Bolsheviks 70 years later.
The October Revolution caused more than 20,000 Russian emigrants to go to Finland, as well as to Yugoslavia (such as Pyotr Wrangel). Many of these however moved on to France, Paris being the favourite destination for Russian émigrés.
Twentieth century émigrés
European aristocrats were forced to leave their native countries due to political upheavals from the beginning of the 20th century to the end of World War II.
Twenty First century émigrés
During 2014, 3415 citizens (who had previously physically left USA) relinquished their US citizenship. This is most often attributed to increasingly hostile treatment of US diaspora with extraterritorial laws upon US citizens such as FATCA (2014 HIRE Act). (In comparison, there were only 235 expatriations in year 2008).
After the takeover of South Africa by the ANC (African National Congress) and SACP (South African Communist Party) in 1994, a large number of Afrikaners emigrated to other countries, citing discrimination in employment and social violence as reasons.
According to the 2011 Australian census there are 145,683 South African émigrés, born in South Africa, in Australia, of whom 30,291 reside in the city of Perth or greater Perth area.
Unlike émigré, the term exile remains politically neutral and includes people from whatever side of the political spectrum who had to leave their homeland, often for political reasons, and who wish to return.
- U.S. Department of State. http://countrystudies.us/united-states/history-33.htm.
- Carole Watterson Troxler. Loyalists http://ncpedia.org/loyalists-part-4-loyalist-fate-wars.
- Kåre Johan Mjør (6 May 2011). Reformulating Russia: The Cultural and Intellectual Historiography of Russian First-Wave Émigré Writers. BRILL. pp. 30–. ISBN 90-04-19286-7.
- Renunciation of citizenship#United States
- Peet van Aardt (24 September 2006). "Million whites leave SA - study". 24.com. Archived from the original on April 16, 2008. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics. http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/5GPER?opendocument&navpos=220
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