"Yes, dictionaries have become political."
LOL, what isn't anymore.
But tell me, when you here the word, refugee, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Maybe it shows my age, but the first thing that comes to my mind when I see or hear the word 'refugee' is someone that is escaping from another country because of some threat.
"when you here the word, refugee, what is the first thing that comes to mind?"
Someone who leaves a geographical region due to some catastrophe, is homeless, and probably won't be returning. Refugee sounds so "permanent" to me. "Evacuees" are more like the folks on the North Shore who will be coming back in the next week or so. I never thought of refugee as having a political denotation until I looked it up recently.