Migration, Hospitality, Justice: Looking at Refugee Hosting Initiatives to Question the Migration

Abstract

This article is a proposal to cross theoretical debates and empirical analyses to question the conceptual problematisation of migration as a matter of hospitality, based on the case of France. Following the 2015 “Long summer of migration” in Western Europe, a metaphoric use of the concept of hospitality to denounce restrictive migration policies has been revived. However, some researchers–such as Bessone and Boudou–question the political relevance of the metaphor of hospitality that tends to moralise migration issues and naturalise inequalities. In parallel, as a reaction to the increasing number of refugees ending up homeless or unable to leave segregated housing facilities, hosting practices have dramatically developed. With this chapter I aim to fuel the theoretical debate with an empirical analysis of the French “Citizen hosting” program. Mobilising Young’s work on justice I point out that an on-going institutionalisation of private hospitality is embedded in inequalities and produces domination. This kind of practical development could be an additional argument for criticising and eventually abandoning the metaphor of hospitality. Nevertheless, I argue that, as hospitality acts as a powerful catalyst of contestation in times of border and reception crisis, a solution would be to imagine ways to radicalise it by combining it with justice.