refugee lies and other republican tales
Often, when things about the plight of a refugee, one thinks of a person who at the edge of angst decides to flee their country trying to find a safe haven to secure their life. More often than not they are in state of “in-between-ness”; they are emotionally attached to the life that they left behind, but they are living a life estranged from that which they left behind. However, the condition of being refugee has not often been something to be proud of. Who could be proud of having to abandon one’s life, as one knew it and start anew, somewhere else? However, for all the fear mongering and trash-talk that often precedes the discussion on or about refugees in the United States, it turns out that there is a certain profit to be gain from claiming oneself to be a refugee even if one has not been. There is an air of victimhood and perhaps of commitment towards one’s sense of justice and rightness, which can be exploited for political gains, even if one simply fled the country for merely simply trying to start a new life, without being necessarily persecuted. Over the weekend, I stumbled upon an article by Tom Lyons where he talks about the claim of Mario Rubio Republican Senator from Florida who claimed that his family arrived to the U.S. after Castro had taken over Cuba; however, an investigation from the Washington Post forced him to admit that his family arrived to Florida in 1956 four years before the Communist rise to power.
More than the obvious denounce, which has already been done by the Washington Post and Tom Lyons, it seems interesting to explore how there seem to be gains from the figure of the refugee that could be exploited from a political perspective. It is not a matter of naivete, eventually everything could become twisted and or vented and exploited for political purposes; however, it is curious that one of the parties that has the most conservative policies towards immigration has a senator and possible presidential contender, exploiting the story of having been a refugee.
hollmanlozano 
I think that such exploitation for political gain is dangerous because it can dilute the real need of refugees. For many refugees, leaving their country is a last ditch effort to survive, and something that is very emotionally painful and difficult. When individuals take these tales of woe and twist them to suit their own goals, they can severely harm the position of others who are in real need. If regugees are seen as “faking it” in order to gain something (as they are often portrayed by the media), this may dramatically affect the lives of thousands that genuinely need protection and help.
What you said about refugee status is very interesting. Because it can be either ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ depending on what context you say it in and for what propose it is being used. In the reading excerpt this week from the Argentine refugee in Mexico the struggle did not appear to be over leverage of the term ‘refugee’ as much as it was a struggle with the personal lack of ‘rootedness.’ However, perhaps with this idealistic glorification of human rights we are also starting to idealize the concept of the refuge to the point where it can be used for leverage in some social contexts as you pointed out in Florida.