The Uncanny “Religious” Refugee: a Post-secular Perspective on Ethics of Hospitality

The aim of this chapter is to show and analyze the unethical ambivalence of\r\nthe dominant narratives about the events of migration, especially in the case\r\nof (forced) displacement. On the one hand, refugees are criminalized and targeted\r\nas a dangerous threat to border security. Refoulement practices and concentration\r\ncamp-like conditions in some refugee camps are the “zoopolitical”\r\neffect of this paranoid rhetoric. On the other hand, counter-narratives portray\r\nrefugees as helpless, passive victims. The effect of this idealized rhetoric is associated\r\nwith a wide range of relief actions, such as safe zones, humanitarian\r\nentry visas, resettlement in solidarity, residency permits and other forms of\r\nwhat some theorists call biopolitical care. The paradox is that these two stereotyped\r\nimaginaries of forced displacement are the two faces of the same unethical\r\nprocess of dehumanization: in both cases, refugees are objects of other\r\npeople’s interpretations and actions. But the key point is that, in this process of\r\ndehumanization, religion is often politicized and plays an instrumental part in\r\njustifying the two opposite narratives: the dangerous refugee is a (bad) Muslim,\r\nwhich threatens Christian civilization; the vulnerable refugee is a (good) victimized\r\nChristian or a (good) poor Muslim, who wait patiently in camps for\r\nWestern salvation.\r\nAn ethics of hospitality is possible only under two conditions. Firstly, we\r\nneed to de-instrumentalize religion and analyze the real, multidimensional\r\nrole of religion in refugees’ experience: the role as a root cause of displacement,\r\nin the countries of departure; and the role as a source of resiliency and\r\nas a key factor, which can both facilitate and impede integration processes in\r\nthe countries of arrival. Secondly, we need to give back to the refugees their\r\nhuman subjectivity, which means enabling them to enter the discourse and\r\nexpress their subjective outlook on their own experience of forced displacement\r\nand on the importance of their religious belonging.