Abstract
This article contends that the concepts of “immigrant” and “refugee” are political fictions that have various functions within and for society. Given the realities of the Anthropocene Age, when millions of people will migrate within and between borders, it is necessary to exposes the fabrication of political concepts, such as “immigrant,” for the sake of reconceptualizing our political philosophies and theologies. In short, by problematizing political and theologicafl constructions of immigrants/refugees, we are invited to think and act otherwise toward included-excluded others. Giorgi Agamben’s notions of inoperativity, singularity, and coming community—inflected through the political concept of care—are used to depict a kind of political dwelling that is independent of any representable condition for belonging, which is then framed from a theological perspective.
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Notes
Holy waters: the spiritual journey of African migrants – in pictures | Art and design | The Guardian Accessed 10 Apr 2021.
There is not space and time to unpack the concept of “citizen.” Also, some readers may be of the mind to consider, given the Anthropocene Age, that all human beings are citizens of the earth (thus, no one is an immigrant or refugee). I am partial to this view, but it is also problematic. For instance, Agamben (2004) points out that Western political philosophies have excluded nature from political consideration, yet the polis is dependent on nature. In Western philosophies, from Agamben’s perspective, there is a “deep ontological rift…between animal and human” (Dickinson, 2015, p.173). Put differently, there is “a radical and total discontinuity between human and nonhuman” (Kompridis, 2020, p.252). Agamben (2004) writes: “It is as if determining the border between human and animal were not just one question among many discussed by philosophers and theologians, scientists and politicians, but rather a fundamental metaphysico-political operation in which alone something like ‘man’ can be decided upon and produced. If animal life and human life could be superimposed perfectly, then neither man nor animal—and, perhaps, not even the divine—would any longer be thinkable” (p.92). In short, other species are excluded from political consideration.
For Agamben (2009) the term “apparatus” refers to “a set of practices, bodies of knowledge, measures and institutions that aim to manage, govern, control, and orient—in a way that purports to be useful—the behaviors, gestures, and thoughts of human beings” (p.13). Referencing Foucault, Agamben writes that “in a disciplinary society, apparatuses aim to create—through a series of practices, discourses, and bodies of knowledge—docile, yet free, bodies that assume their identity and their ‘freedom’ as subjects” (p.19).
There are philosophers and activists, like Eva Meijer (2019), who argue that other species must be included in our democratic deliberations. A more specific example of this is New Zealand’s political representatives who hold office to represent species and lands of particular areas of the country (Rousseau, 2016).
World Immigration Statistics 1960–2021 | MacroTrends. Accessed 18 Feb 2021.
immigrant | Origin and meaning of immigrant by Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com) Accessed 25 Feb 2021.
Immigration Law and Legal Definition | USLegal, Inc. Accessed 25 Feb 2021.
Deaths by Border Patrol—Southern Border Communities Coalition. Accessed 21 Mar 2021.
Police Shootings: Black Americans Disproportionately Affected [Infographic] (forbes.com) Accessed 28 Mar 2021.
Employers Exploit Unauthorized Immigrants to Keep Wages Low—NYTimes.com Accessed 22 Mar 2021. Immigrants Contribute Greatly to U.S. Economy, Despite Administration’s “Public Charge” Rule Rationale | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (cbpp.org) Accessed 22 Mar 2021.
Sovereignty includes democracies—ostensibly, rule of the people. One could say, then, that citizens are sovereign, which might be partially true when considering a Greek city, but again the question remains as to who has political agency. The U.S. is seen as a democracy, but the law-making and law-preserving powers are left to the state. So, the state exercises sovereignty, which is evident in the state of exceptions exercised by presidents and legislatures.
Border apprehensions, ICE arrests and deportations under Trump | Pew Research Center. Accessed 25 Feb 2021.
The sovereign does not refer to one person, but to those who are able to exercise law-making and law-preserving powers.
Of course, racism also factors in how citizens of color are treated by white citizens (and constructed apparatuses) with disdain and brutality.
Immigrants Contribute Greatly to U.S. Economy, Despite Administration’s “Public Charge” Rule Rationale | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (cbpp.org). Accessed 24 Mar 2021.
Economic benefits of illegal immigration outweigh the costs, study shows (phys.org) Accessed 24 Mar 2021.
It is obvious that all citizens are not treated equally. The presence of racism, classism, sexism, ageism, disablism, etc. reveals how some citizens are misrecognized and as a result are denied access to resources (see Fraser & Honneth, 2003).
See footnote 1
Immigrant facing deportation leaves church sanctuary—Washington Times Accessed Mar 16 2021.
[USC02] 8 USC 1324: Bringing in and harboring certain aliens (house.gov) Accessed Mar 16 2021.
https://en.visitsvalbard.com/visitor-information/destinations/longyearbyen . Accessed Mar 16 2021.
I want to recognize, though do not have time to address, the realities of the apparatuses of racism, sexism, and classism wherein citizens are misrecognized as persons (absence of suchness), which, in turn, accompanies the maldistribution of resources (Fraser & Honneth, 2003). An indecent society or polis, as Margalit (1996) notes, is one where a group of citizens are humiliated (misrecognized) and constructed as included-excluded others, and denied parity of participation in the polis’ space of appearances.
While I do not have the space to list the numerous examples of this fear, it is important to stress that fear is not simply linked to those operating the apparatuses of the state. Millions of citizens fear the Other as immigrant as well. Also, this fear is not simply about not being able to “control our borders.” It is also a racial fear, especially of many white citizens. This was obvious in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
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LaMothe, R. The Political Fiction of “Immigrants” and the Coming Community in the Anthropocene Age. Pastoral Psychol 71, 735–751 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-022-01015-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-022-01015-1