Definition of exile as opposed to the immigrant : concept of a non-volountary departure, due to prosecution and not to economical difficulties. Furthermore, the departure and the travel are preceeded and accompained by life-risk, the conditions of arrival are uncertain. Therefore, though those who leave are often the physically and mentally 'strongest', a fragility due to the undergone sufferings, that makes adaptation more difficult. Inventary of the difficulties: changes in space, time, visual frame of life, life habits. Difficulties due to the different rythmes of adaptation inside a given family according to the age of its members. Importance of the loss of social status. Finally, uncertainities due to the attitude of the recieving country (for example, hostility towards anticommunists in France). Nevertheless, the prognosis is usually good, this because, as we noticed in the beginning, the strarting personnality is healthy.

Exile Pathology Adaptation

Personality threat Article hostility social adaptation human migration