Resident Foreigners

More about the book

In the contemporary political landscape, where the nation-state still dominates, the migrant is unwelcome, accused of being out of place and taking someone else's spot. Yet, there is no right to territory that can justify the sovereignist politics of rejection. In an ethics that looks towards global justice, Donatella Di Cesare, with conceptual clarity and at times a narrative pace, reflects on the ultimate meaning of migration, demonstrating her ability to get to the heart of the matter. Living and migrating are not opposed, as common sense might suggest, still haunted by the old ghosts of jus sanguinis and jus soli. Instead, one must recognize in every migrant the figure of the "resident foreigner," the true protagonist of the book. Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem are the models of cities examined in a superb fresco, questioning the crucial and current theme of citizenship. In this new age of walls, in a world dotted with internment camps for foreigners that Europe seeks to keep at its gates, Di Cesare advocates for a politics of hospitality, based on the separation from the place of residence, and proposes a new sense of cohabitation.