Odyssean and Rubicon Refugees: Toward a Typology of Refugees in the Land of Exile

With a focus on refugees in Western Europe, this paper seeks to establish refugees in their country of exile/settlement as social types distinct from labour migrants. It looks at the notion of ethnic groups and their strategies as a theoretical tool for better understanding refugees. The refugees' positioning within the structure of conflict of their country of origin is posited as a determining factor of their modes of settlement. It is possible to find two large categories: 1. Odyssean refugees: refugees who nurtured a collective project in the land of origin and took it with them in the land of exile. 2. Rubicon refugees: refugees who did not partake in a collective project oriented toward the homeland or who have forsaken it.