See Exile (disambiguation) for other meanings.

To be in exile is to be away from one's home (i.e. city, state or country) while either being explicitly refused permission to return or being threatened by prison or death upon return.

It is common to distinguish between internal exile, i.e., forced resettlement within the country of residence, and external exile, deportation outside the country of residence.

Personal exile

Exile has historically been used as a form of punishment, particularly for political opponents of those in power. The use of exile for political purposes can sometimes be useful for the government because it prevents the exilee from organizing in their native land or from becoming a martyr.

Exile represented a severe punishment, particularly for those, like Ovid or Du Fu, exiled to strange or backward regions, cut off from all of the possibilities of life as well as their families and associates. Dante describes the pain of exile in the Divine Comedy:

«. . . Tu lascerai ogne cosa diletta

più caramente; e questo è quello strale

che l'arco de lo essilio pria saetta.

Tu proverai sì come sa di sale

lo pane altrui, e come è duro calle

lo scendere e 'l salir per l'altrui scale . . .»

". . . You will leave everything you love most:

this is the arrow that the bow of exile

shoots first. You will know how salty

another's bread tastes and how hard it

is to ascend and descend

another's stairs . . ."

Paradiso XVII: 55-60

Exile has been softened, to some extent, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as exiles have received welcome in other countries and have either created new communities within those countries or, less frequently, returned to their homelands following the demise of the regime that exiled them.

Government in exile

Main article: Government in exile.

During a foreign occupation or a coup, a government in exile of a country may be established.

Nation in exile

Main article: Diaspora.

When large groups, or occasionally a whole people or nation is exiled, it can be said that this nation is in exile, or Diaspora. Nations that have been in exile for substantial periods include the Jews, who were deported by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 597 BC and again in the years following the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem in the year AD 70.

The entire population of Crimean Tatars (200,000) that remained in their homeland Crimea was exiled on 18 May 1944 to Central Asia as a form of ethnic cleansing and collective punishment on false accusations.

At Diego Garcia, between 1967 and 1973 the British Government forcibly removed some 2,000 Ilois resident islanders to make way for a military base today jointly operated by the US and UK.

Tax exile

A wealthy citizen who departs from a former abode for a lower tax jurisdiction in order to reduce his/her tax burden is termed a tax exile.

Famous people who have been in exile

(Listed alpabetically by last name)

• Dante Alighieri
• Emperor Bao Dai of Vietnam
• Crown Prince Bao Long of Vietnam
• Michel Aoun
• Napoleon Bonaparte exiled from France to Elba and, later, St Helena
• Willy Brandt exiled to Norway and Sweden, during the Nazi era.
• Bertolt Brecht
• Breyten Breytenbach
• Alejo Carpentier, exiled to Haiti and Venezuela
• Du Fu
• Jean-Claude Duvalier, exiled form Haiti to France
• Albert Einstein self exiled from Germany to the United States
• Bobby Fischer from the United States to the Philippines, Japan and Iceland
• Lion Feuchtwanger
• Sigmund Freud self exiled from Austria to United Kingdom
• Alberto Fujimori, exiled from Peru to Japan
• Garibaldiexiled to South America
• Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, exiled from Tibet to India
• Heinrich Heine
• Victor Hugo exiled from France to the Channel Islands
• Arthur Koestler
• Idi Amin, exiled to Libya, and Saudi Arabia until his death.
• Pavel Kohout
• Lajos Kossuth
• Prince Norodom Sihanouk, exiled from Cambodia to China and North Korea twice.
• Prince Nguyen Phuc Buu Chanh of Vietnam
• Peter Kropotkin
• Lenin self-exiled to Switzerland
• Lotte Lehmann
• Heinrich Mann self-exile to Switzerland and to the United States
• Thomas Mann self-exile to Switzerland and to the United States , moved back to Switzerland
• Ferdinand Marcos exiled from the Philippines to Hawaii
• Karl Marxself-exiled from Germany to Great Britain
• José Martí
• Giuseppe Mazzini
• Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov
• Ovid
• Marcos Pérez Jiménez, exiled from Venezuela to USA and Spain
• Juan Perónexiled from Argentina to Paraguay and Spain.
• Bob Powell
• Ferenc Puskás
• Prince Sauryavong Savang, lives in exile in Paris, France
• Crown Prince Soulivong Savang, lives in exile in Paris, France
• Prince Vong Savang, lives in exile in Paris, France
• Prince Mangkra Souvannaphouma, lives in exile in Paris, France
• Prince Jerry Remigius Kanagarajah lives in exile in London, England
• Prince Nguyen Phuc Buu Chanh, lives in exile in the United States
• Prince Shwebomin lives in exile in London, England
• PrincHso Khan Pha lives in exile in Canada
• Emperor Amha Selassie I, lived in exile in Djibouti,Israel, Great Britain, and United States.
• Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia
• prince Crown Prince Zera Yacob Amha Selassie lived in exile in Djibouti,Israel, Great Britain, and United States.
• Wole Soyinka
• Alfredo Stroessner exile from Paraguay to Brazil
• Sun Yat-sen
• Oliver Tambo
• Leon Trotsky exiled to Turkey,France , Norway and Mexico
• Bruno Walter
• Mohammad Zaher Shahexile from Afghanistan to Italy
• Nicholas I of Montenegro

Related articles

• Ostracism
• Refugee