1. Introduction
The word “exile” (Latin exilium, “banishment”) denotes the absence of a person or a group from their own homeland by reason of banishment, deprivation of citizenship, or religious, political, or ethnic persecution. Unlike the wider concept of emigration, exile implies departure under coercion. Exile involves crossing an administrative frontier, or in the early modern period a national or territorial boundary. “Exile” and “exiles” (tho…