Hospitality and recognition

The dramatic migration problem represents one of the epochal challenges of the global age, a challenge that comes from the unprecedented figure of the other: of the other as different, destined to become the “stranger within” (Simmel). As a result, there is a double and specular emotional reaction: on the one hand fear on the part of the host, who feels threatened; on the other hand resentment on the part of the guest, who feels the object of misrecognition. This negative spiral, which is a source of conflict and violence, can only be interrupted by an openness to hospitality. But if it is true, as Derrida claims, that hospitality must be unconditional, it is also true that it can only be founded on mutual recognition (Honneth) between the host and the guest.