You do want to stay here?

When I was first thinking of moving to the tiny kingdom of Lotarot I had heard several stories concerning the volatile relations between "Belongers" and "Non-Belongers". I had heard, for instance, that a certain female lawyer, English in origin, had thrown a tantrum at her (Belonger) secretary, accusing her of laziness and incompetence. The secretary had made a phone call to somebody unnamed in the Labour Department (or was it Immigration?) and the very next day (a couple of days later?) the lawyer was marched out to a plane and sent on her way back to England.
While I accepted the story at face value, I was sure that upon investigation there would be much more to the tale, that surely justice was not so arbitrary.
Later, as I got to know more people, I experienced such unsettling episodes as this: I was interviewing a very successful and respected artist, recipient of several international awards, secure in his profession and an honorary Belonger, though born in a South American country. We were discussing some possible real estate developments and their potential for causing environmental disaster and the seeming lack of national will to avoid this disaster. Our conversation turned to politics and the scandal of the recent firing of a minister in the government over a controversial film made under his auspices. We were in a public place, a restaurant, when he became agitated and began glancing around. "We'd better be careful," he said. "People might be listening." I laughed at this preposterous joke, but the look on his face convinced me he was serious. "You do want to stay here?" he asked. "Better be careful."