‘Velut in sentinam congessit’: Refugees and racism, modern and medieval

Abstract

The racialized revulsion of persons displaced by extreme poverty, violence, and environmental crises – in simplified terms, anti-refugee xenophobia – is increasingly mainstream in the 21st century. This essay traces a long history of this form of xenophobia by bringing together two iterations of anti-refugee sentiment, one modern and one medieval. I specifically look at how scatological metaphors are used to dehumanize refugees in the literary works of William of Malmesbury (the premiere chronicler of the early twelfth century) and in the speeches of Donald Trump (who became the 45th president of the United States on January 2017). At first glance, this comparison may seem unlikely. However, comparing unwanted immigrants to human offal is a racializing, dehumanizing move that spans time and space, showing that hegemonic powers have a long history of using crises to engage in race-making activities. This study thus troubles the premodern/modern chronological split, showing that stateless immigrants have a troubled and unwanted position in the deep history of race. Modern non-refugees must recognize that the life of this particular form of dehumanization is long and ongoing. By recovering medieval refugee chronicles through a lens of refugee narratives, we may historicize and humanize a social group that has so often been dehumanized.