Any comparison to real-world refugees is inherently limited by the fact that the refugees in this game are in fact much more local. Ironically enough in the American context, it would be like if there was a murderous army ravaging the (mostly republican) rural areas, and the giant metropolitan city (usually democrat) did not want to let them in to protect them.
Honestly, if you find yourself unable to think of refugees (a concept that has existed forever) outside of the current political context in which you find yourself, you might need to just stop listening to or thinking about politics for a while.
