# Is it problematic to to say 'refugee' to refer to privileged people waiting out COVID in nice places? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 22, 2021, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247 "2021-01-22T23:43:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/21 "2021-01-24T13:00:35Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > > [@edwin\_klockars](#): > > > > We have left our homes largely against our will because the quality of life and/or risk to our health was so great that we felt the need to move. > > Uh… no, you did not leave against your will unless someone marched you out the door at gunpoint. > > You CHOSE to leave your homes. Yeah. The problematic part to me isn’t what word your use, but the claim that you were forced to leave your home. Yes, pandemic life sucks. It sucks for all of us. I’ve seriously considered moving to Hawaii due to the pandemic. Not because I’m forced to, but because i fell in love with Hawaii when i visited, and the mandatory work from home that the pandemic brought means that i -could- move there, without having to give up my job. (And i don’t get to see my friends except on line, either.) I haven’t done it because i need to stay to help my elderly mother. It’s very much a choice. My grand boss did move to California for the same reasons i considered Hawaii. He and his wife are renting a house where the weather is nice and they can at least enjoy being outdoors. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/22 "2021-01-24T15:42:56Z")
How do you use this term with a straight face? Refugee? Really? And you need it spelled out for you why it’s wildly inappropriate? Stop and think for a moment how this must fall on the ears of people who have an actual and REAL connection to the word refugee. Or do you imagine none of the people around you could possibly have any such connection? I think you should ONLY use it if you can mimic a very snooty, crusty British accent! ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/23 "2021-01-24T17:15:27Z")
Not sure what the great debate is about, you’re not suffering in a Maui mansion, while remotely working at your job and hobnobbing with other Cali expats who get a thrill out of your common situation dodging the covid infected masses. You seem to be seeking compassion for your self proclaimed “refugee status”. You’re fooling nobody with your claim of hardship if anything this op is a humble brag about your wealth and privilege. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/24 "2021-01-24T20:16:07Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > When a chat site i used to enjoy died, i created a discord server that i named the “dead chat site refugee camp” and invited as many users as i could to it before the dying site completely went away. I never meant to imply we were some persecuted group, or wretched, just that we were forced out of our chat site. I’m fairly sure the same term got used a lot that time the (old vB based) SDMB went down for an extended period and everyone moved to some other forum for the duration. I mean, I personally think it’s probably not a great idea to throw the term ‘refugee’ around with abandon, but I don’t think the OP is really doing something _new_ with the word. ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/25 "2021-01-24T20:25:54Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > How do you use this term with a straight face? Refugee? Really? > And you need it spelled out for you why it’s wildly inappropriate? Do you get bent out of shape when someone says they’re starving when they’re really just hungry? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/26 "2021-01-24T21:10:04Z")
I’d kill for a cheeseburger about now. I missed lunch today. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/27 "2021-01-24T21:18:32Z")
Is there a better word to denote someone who left an area due to fear of disease? If I could think of one, I’d be more likely to vote against using the word refugee. Until there’s something better, I’ll just shrug. They’re seeking refuge from the virus. It works. Covugee? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/28 "2021-01-24T21:30:10Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Is there a better word to denote someone who left an area due to fear of disease? Nosophobe? Decameronite? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/29 "2021-01-24T21:39:20Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Nosophobe? Decameronite? Abierunts? Abiērunt = third person, plural, perfect, active, indicative of [abeō], depart from or leave. I can’t see that catching on. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/30 "2021-01-24T21:55:21Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Covugee? We have our winner!!! At least if I was King and there was any justice in this world. Though I’d spell it “Covfugee” to get both the V and F sounds in there. They run together of course, but having both is better than either alone. ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/31 "2021-01-25T00:08:07Z")
When there’s people actually murdering people for actual cheeseburgers, how can you say this with a straight face?!? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/32 "2021-01-25T00:26:41Z")
I don’t show that side much around here, but I’m a stone cold dude when it comes to my cheeseburgers. Men have died getting between me and lunch. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/33 "2021-01-25T03:06:26Z")
I like covfugee. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/34 "2021-01-25T03:18:38Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Yes. In casual conversation among your own social group you can say whatever you like, of course. > > But if you’re wondering about the broader optics of highly affluent tech workers calling themselves “refugees” because they’ve voluntarily moved from one very comfortable and safe life (and even with the pandemic, your lives were still doubtless much more comfortable and safe than those of most working-class people around you) to an even more comfortable and safe one in a tropical island (though I’m not trying to gloss over the genuine impact of uprooting your families, distance, homesickness, etc.)… > > … yeah, those optics aren’t good. Keep the term “refugee” for a little in-joke among your own crowd if you want, but call yourself “temporarily relocated” or something like that in general conversation. I’ve also heard “COVID dodgers” if you want something a little more self-deprecating. Seconded. I too am guilty of having used the word flippantly; I referred to myself and some other posters as “Snopes refugees” when we came to this board after that one shut down. But I did not and would not do so in a conversation about actual refugees, and if someone took offense to my usage, I would apologize rather than plead my case about how upsetting it was to suddenly lose a community I’d been a part of for over a decade. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/35 "2021-01-25T03:32:56Z")
I guess I don’t put as much emotional weight on “refugee” as many people do. I understand “snopes refugee” and it would never have occurred to me that you were suffering in any real way, and certainly not that you were hungry or cold or lacked legal status due to being a “snopes refugee”. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/36 "2021-01-25T04:04:44Z")
Somehow, to me, referring to oneself as a “refugee” in a strictly virtual context—where you really were forced to relocate to another virtual space when your previous one shut down—seems like a more acceptable metaphor. Being any kind of digital “refugee” on the internet is very clearly just a figure of speech that has nothing to do with actual physical displacement or uprooting. Being an affluent West Coast tech worker who temporarily relocates to Hawaii in order to telecommute from a tropical paradise while avoiding pandemic hotspots, on the other hand, has juuuuuust enough actual physical displacement and uprooting in it to make any explicit association with real refugees sound obnoxiously insensitive. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/37 "2021-01-25T04:28:22Z")
Like the uncanny valley? Neither real nor a cartoon? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/38 "2021-01-25T04:30:01Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Though I’d spell it “Covfugee” to get both the V and F sounds in there. They run together of course, but having both is better than either alone. Dang. That looks like a cousin of covfefe. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/39 "2021-01-25T04:46:59Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Like the uncanny valley? Neither real nor a cartoon? Yeah, that’s kind of it. Or like the infamous “Bowling Green massacre”, perhaps. You can say you were massacred by a better player in a poker game, and it’s funny. Or you can refer to the real-life massacre of students in the Stoneman Douglas High shooting, and it’s tragic and horrific. But if you’re using the word “massacre” to suggest a real-life terrorism event justifying draconian travel bans, except the “event” was something that never actually happened, then you just sound like a clueless asshole who’s arrogantly misappropriating the word. That’s kind of my feeling about the “anti-Goldilocks effect” of somebody using the word “refugee” to refer not to moved website accounts (which is obviously just a joke), nor to real-life refugees (which is obviously a genuinely catastrophic situation), but to global-elite types voluntarily relocating to maximize their comfort in a time of global crisis—which sounds Just Wrong. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247/40 "2021-01-25T12:11:02Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > > [@LSLGuy](#): > > > > Though I’d spell it “Covfugee” to get both the V and F sounds in there. They run together of course, but having both is better than either alone. > > Dang. That looks like a cousin of covfefe. The two words are actually closely related etymologically. If we’d had a lot less covfefe then we’d have no need for covfugees now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-problematic-to-to-say-refugee-to-refer-to-privileged-people-waiting-out-covid-in-nice-places/931247.md?page=3)