Responding to Hostile Environments

Abstract

Abstract How are we to respond to hostile environments? And how can a relational ethics help when it refuses to offer firm moral guidance to government or civil society? Once again, we start from what is already done, how hospitality is already practised, and responsibility accepted all over the world in everyday living, organising and activism. The first section uses examples from Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East to outline four ways in which responses are being animated by ‘disobedient’ hospitality practices that accept responsibility for immigrants. Though never unproblematic, these practices show what is possible. The second section seeks to make theoretical sense of these themes, seeing them as ways of opposing the moral immunity claimed by hostile environments. Using the work of Donna Haraway, it makes the case for a relational ethics of hospitality that cultivates the ability to respond: our response-ability in the face of abandonment.