He would not have to return them to slave holders in the south

The potato famine caused a lot of hardship for the native people of Ireland as potatoes were their staple food.

Most of the other food they grew was sent to Britain as the Irish were under their rule.

As a result many people died and left because of the hunger and disease created by the potato blight.

They were willing to risk the long boat journey from Ireland to other countries just to get away from their plight.

MS St. Louis.

The ship sailed transatlantic routes, from Hamburg to New York, but during the Great Depression turned to cruising to make revenue. The ship is most notable for a single voyage in 1939, which was dramatised in the 1976 motion picture Voyage of the Damned.

The German propaganda ministry and the Nazi party conceived of a propaganda exercise which would demonstrate that Germany was not alone in its territorial, exclusionary hostility towards Jews as a permanent minority within the political economy of their state. The German propagandists wanted to demonstrate that the "civilized" world agreed with their assertion that Jews constituted a continuing "hidden-hand" of influence on national and economic affairs. They wanted to demonstrate that no other Western country or people would receive Jews as refugees. Firstly it would appear that the Nazis were allowing the Jewish refugees a new life in Havana

The Nazis were aware of rising western antisemitism and correctly surmised that these Jews, traveling on tourist visas (not immigrant visas, which none of the potential host countries would likely have issued to them), would not be able to visit Cuba as tourists when in fact they were political/social refugees; who, for whatever reason, had been forcibly removed from Germany, their home country. Furthermore, having been refused entry into Cuba and other Atlantic nations, the plight of the refugees would force the world to admit that there was, as the Nazis characterized it, a "Jewish problem" that Germany, for all to see, was trying to resolve "humanely."

With not one of the countries of the Northern Atlantic basin allowing the Jewish passengers entry, those countries would be in no position in the future to morally object when Germany dealt with its problem Jewish population. The St. Louis sailed out of Hamburg into the Atlantic Ocean in May 1939 carrying one non-Jewish and 936 (mainly German) Jewish refugees seeking asylum from Nazi persecution just before World War II. However, on the ship's arrival in Cuba, the passengers were refused either tourist entry (which in theory was valid for their tourist visas) or political asylum (which was not the stated purpose for which the tourist visas had been issued) by the Cuban government under Federico Laredo Brú. This prompted a near mutiny. Two people attempted suicide and dozens more threatened to do the same. However, 29 of the refugees were able to disembark at Havana.

On 4 June 1939, the St. Louis was also refused permission to unload on orders of President Roosevelt as the ship waited in the Caribbean Sea between Florida and Cuba. Initially, Roosevelt showed limited willingness to take in some of those on board despite the Immigration Act of 1924, but vehement opposition came from Roosevelt's Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, and from Southern Democrats-some of whom went so far as to threaten to withhold their support of Roosevelt in the 1940 Presidential election if this occurred.

The St. Louis then tried to enter Canada but was denied as well.

The ship sailed for Europe, first stopping in the United Kingdom, where 288 of the passengers disembarked and were thus spared from the Holocaust. The remaining 619 passengers disembarked at Antwerp; 224 were accepted into France, 214 into Belgium and 181 into the Netherlands, safe from Hitler's persecution until the German invasions of these countries.[5][6]

The ship without the passengers eventually sailed back to Hamburg, Germany. By using the survival rates for Jews in these countries, Thomas and Morgan-Witts estimated that 180 of the St. Louis refugees in France, along with 152 of those in Belgium and 60 of those in Holland survived the Holocaust, giving a total of 709 estimated survivors and 227 killed of the original 936 Jewish refugees.

Later, more detailed research by Scott Miller and Sarah Ogilvie of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has given a slightly higher total of deaths:

Of the 620 St. Louis passengers who returned to continental Europe, we determined that eighty-seven were able to emigrate before Germany invaded western Europe on May 10, 1940. Two hundred and fifty-four passengers in Belgium, France and the Netherlands after that date died during the Holocaust. Most of these people were murdered in the killing centers of Auschwitz and Sóbibor; the rest died in internment camps, in hiding or attempting to evade the Nazis. Three hundred sixty-five of the 620 passengers who returned to continental Europe survived the war.

I think it is refuge: which can be a place providing protection hence refugee a person looking fro protection safety etc

It was the 1930s, the height of the Great Depression, and almost all countries had strict immigration controls, so people leaving Nazi Germany could not be that choosy. Many emigrated to: * The U.S. * Britain * France * The Netherlands * Belgium * Switzerland * Czechoslovakia * Australia * Argentina (till late 1938, when Argentina refused to accept more refugees) Obviously, those who fled to Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Belgium and France later came under the control of the Nazis again. (Anne Frank and her family are an example of this).

The Jewish Virtual Library states:

The War Refugee Board

It was not until late in the war that the United States attempted to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. In January 1944, the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., persuaded President Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish the War Refugee Board.

Although confirmed reports of the mass murders of Jews had reached the U.S. State Department in 1942, officials had remained silent. During the war the State Department had insisted that the best way to save victims of Nazi Germany's policies was to win the war as quickly as possible.

The War Refugee Board worked with Jewish organizations, diplomats from neutral countries, and resistance groups in Europe to rescue Jews from occupied territories and provide relief to inmates of Nazi concentration camps. Its most extensive rescue efforts were led by Raoul Wallenberg....

The War Refugee Board played a crucial role in the rescue of as many as 200,000 Jews. However, some people still wonder how many more Jews might have been saved if the rescue missions had begun sooner.

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

It is important to remember that the US was directed against the Japanese during WW2.

There was poverty at home.

I don't really know a good example of a refugee but I know the definition...refugee is a person who is forced to leave a war zone or a natural disaster like flood,earthquake etc

You cannot directly help refugees, but can give to charitys to help their wellbeing,

you could expect a certain standard of the treatment to a refugee in a EU country anyway.

A refugee is someone who has had to leave their home country to escape a major disaster, often but not always a war.

While many people believe that countries in the West host the largest numbers of refugees, this isn't the case. Currently, Pakistan, Iran and Syria are the nations with the largest numbers of refugees.

The largest numbers went to Pennsylvania. From there some went south into Virginia, North & South Carolina and a large number in the Appalachian region. Others also settled in western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and the Midwest o the US.

Political issues.
The most common reason for emigration from anywhere is to escape war, but many people specifically come to America for an opportunity to enjoy a better life.

better life, more opportunities, jobs, money, better future!

Most don't have enough money pay for, and usually not enough time to get. their documentation. However, it's not just about money. Many individuals and families have lost hope in their native counties. It takes great courage to leave your home for good, in order to seek a better life. It is not an easy decision to make to become a refugee.

There are several reasons people go to China. Some travel to China on business, and some people have family and friends there. Sometimes people choose to vacation in China to experience and learn more about the culture, which may be far different from their own.

A person with no money.

Language barrier. Nearly all obstacles can be over come...once communications are in effect.

Refugees get to a safer place by going to another country.

Refugees have a 6 week orientation and then get a safe place to live.

After, if want can apply for countries citizenship.

Bell's parents decided to move to Canada in 1870, when Bell was 23, after both of Alexander's brothers had died of tuberculosis, aged 19 and 25. Bell himself had been in poor health for many months. Bell's father had previously convalesced in Newfoundland, so the family moved from London to Brantford, Ontario.

Bell himself took teaching positions in Boston and lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts after his marriage in 1877. In 1882, he became a naturalized US citizen. Bell later moved to Nova Scotia, and lived to the age of 75.

Salvadorans, like people from many other countries, immigrate to the Us for a variety of reasons. These include: * seeking safety from political turmoil * seeking economic opportunity * seeking educational opportunity * seeking medical assistance * joining relatives already in the US