Welcome, its suppression, and the in-between spaces of refugee sub-citizenship – commentary to Gill

Matthew Brookman Sparke

doi:10.11143/fennia.70999

Abstract

This article argues that geographies of welcome complicate simple binary oppositions between fully enfranchised citizenship and what is often theorized as the ‘bare life’ of refugee rejection in ‘spaces of exception’. Ranging from sanctuary cities and squats to clinics, classrooms, kitchens and gardens, spaces of welcome instead offer islands of limited enfranchisement, agency and hope amidst seas of sub-citizenship, subjugation and fear. The concept of sub-citizenship can be used thus to elucidate how welcome and its suppression create a spectrum of intermediate experiences between the abstract poles of biopolitical belonging and necropolitical rejection. Geographies of welcome thereby become legible as in-between spaces in which the damage done by the suppression of welcome is contested and countered, however incompletely.

Highlights

This article argues that geographies of welcome complicate simple binary oppositions between fully enfranchised citizenship and what is often theorized as the ‘bare life’ of refugee rejection in ‘spaces of exception’
Inspired by Nick Gill’s invitation to reflect on the suppression of welcome for refugees, I would like to use this commentary to highlight how spaces of welcome complicate simple binary oppositions between fully enfranchised citizenship and what is often theorized after Agamben (2000) as the ‘bare life’ of refugee rejection in ‘spaces of exception’
The concept of sub-citizenship can be used to elucidate how welcome and its suppression create a spectrum of intermediate experiences between the abstract poles of biopolitical belonging and necropolitical rejection (Sparke 2017)