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Challenging the Borders of Justice in the Age of Migrations pp 139–156Cite as

Migration and Social Suffering

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Part of the book series: Studies in Global Justice ((JUST,volume 18))

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the suffering caused by being seen and treated as a migrant or asylum seeker. It establishes a parallel between this form of suffering and that experienced by people living in economically developed countries who have become economically “useless.” It discusses some of the mechanisms leading to social suffering, namely those connected to pervasive doctrines, defined as a system of beliefs and values, and of social norms and social practices that permeate the structure of a society and influence social interactions. Finally, the chapter discusses a fictional depiction of the suffering of migrants: the movie Bread and Chocolate by Franco Brusati.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a normative argument, see, among others, Angeli (2011), Ott (2016), and Velasco (2016) .

  2. 2.

    Among the many publications describing the odyssey of migrants, Carr (2015) is particularly rich in details and data.

  3. 3.

    As seen recently in Italy and Germany, with far-right activists attacking and setting fire to immigration centers and throwing stones at buses transporting refugee women and children (see, among others: http://siracusa.gds.it/2014/11/03/avola-pietre-e-bottiglie-contro-il-centro-dei-rifugiati_256574/, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/neo-nazi-gang-italy-refugee-carabinieri-la-spezia-far-right-facist-racism-a7716406.html and http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39096833)

  4. 4.

    In the bureaucratic language of the EU (which in this point differs from everyday language), asylum seekers are individuals who arrive in a country claiming that they are escaping war or persecution; once they get asylum, they are called refugees.

  5. 5.

    See Ferrante (2015) and La Barbera (2015).

  6. 6.

    On the “new poor” and the so-called “new social question,” see the pioneering works by Robert Castel (1995, 2003); see further (Paugam 1991; Dejours 1998; Dubet 2006).

  7. 7.

    The transformation from citizen to customer within the welfare state was described and deplored by Habermas (1975).

  8. 8.

    See http://www.hartziv.org/hausbesuche-vom-amt.html (last access on 11/27/2017).

  9. 9.

    See the classical study by Pearce (1978). I would like to thank MariaCaterina La Barbera for calling my attention to this last point.

  10. 10.

    For empirical data from the 1970s on, see Pearce (1978), Ellwood and Summers (1986), Bagguley and Mann (1992), Chant (2006), and Prideaux (2010).

  11. 11.

    While there are doubtless people who abuse and exploit the system of public benefits, their number is nevertheless extremely low, as shown by empirical studies such as those quoted in footnote 10.

  12. 12.

    Along with poverty (and in concourse with it), race is of course a major factor that leads to the criminalization of entire groups. See the classical study Blumstein (1982); and more recently, Pettit and Western (2004) and Wacquant (2010).

  13. 13.

    In recent years, right-wing parties have managed to introduce into public debate the argument that “we” should give preference to “our” poor over migrants, i.e., that we should distribute to the poor within our societies the resources we are using to deal with migration. The general rhetoric of “deserving” vs. “undeserving” migrants viz. poor has been transformed into the opposition between the weakest members of “our” societies vs. the rapacious migrants coming to “us” just to exploit our system of social benefits . UKIP, Lega Nord, Front National and other far-right parties often use arguments of this kind, claiming that preference has been given to migrant families when it comes to assigning public housing, or that more money per day is spent on an individual migrant than on one of “our” poor. This shift in the public discussion has created a diversion from the usual anti-poor rhetoric, which, however, is still very strong in countries where immigration is not yet a relevant phenomenon (e.g., in South America).

  14. 14.

    Moore (1970) discusses these and similar examples, although the term “socially avoidable suffering” does not appear.

  15. 15.

    I am aware that the term “doctrine” can be seen as vague. However, I think that the term “ideology” would raise major problems, e.g., it could give the impression that the mentioned system of beliefs and values, of norms and practices, is somehow the result of manipulation or aims at hiding the real power relationships within society. Doctrine seems to me to be more neutral since it allows for the possibility that even those who first formulate and defend it believe in its validity.

  16. 16.

    The classical work on the relation between capitalism and its characteristic pervasive doctrine , its “spirit,” is of course Weber (1905). See also Boltanski and Chiapello (1999).

  17. 17.

    For example, the mass suicides of Jonestown (1978) or Rancho Santa Fe (CA) (1997). Studying these cases might be interesting to understand how pervasive doctrines work: how they take hold of every aspect of their followers’ lives, how they immunize their followers against alternative ways of thinking and living, how they become unquestionable for their followers, and how they sometimes succeed in convincing outsiders and neutral observers of their legitimacy (this is particularly evident in the case of religious creeds, which seldom if ever are subject to open criticism).

  18. 18.

    On this point, they resemble what Rahel Jaeggi (2014) defines as “forms of life.”

  19. 19.

    Some authors use the word “immunization” to describe this attempt at defending nationals against foreigners. See Brossat (2003) and Lorey (2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil

    Alessandro Pinzani

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  1. Alessandro Pinzani
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Correspondence to Alessandro Pinzani .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Philosophy, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Madrid, Spain

    Juan Carlos Velasco

  2. Faculty of Social Sciences, Nebrija University, Madrid, Spain

    MariaCaterina La Barbera

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Pinzani, A. (2019). Migration and Social Suffering. In: Velasco, J., La Barbera, M. (eds) Challenging the Borders of Justice in the Age of Migrations. Studies in Global Justice, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05590-5_8

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