With the news that some Cuban Pan Am athletes defected, I find myself wondering why defecting is allowed from the perspective of the receiving country.
The results of my googling talk about the fact that defecting is prohibited by the country of origin and measures that countries might take to prevent people from defecting away. But they take for granted that the receiving country will be happy to welcome the defectors.
Does the receiving country always in fact welcome defectors? If so, why? Do they ever turn them away? Or can people automatically get in by announcing that they're defecting?
The definition of "defecting" as opposed to "emigrating" is that the country of origin doesn't want to let you out. So, given recent stinginess towards refugees in various parts of the world, maybe people who have to pay smugglers to get them across the border so they can claim refugee status should instead announce that they're defecting?
2 comments:
The US loves defectors because they hate communism and especially hate(d?) Castro. Under our present government, Canada feels the same way.
#LeastImportantThing: When we first moved to Canada, Allan and I liked to call ourselves defectors.
"Select images with eggs", and I'm on a PC. A few were obviously eggs, but many I couldn't tell. Yet here is my comment.
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