Living with others: fostering radical cosmopolitanism through citizenship politics in Berlin

Abstract

A growing refugee and migration crisis has imploded on European shores, immobilizing E.U. countries and fuelling a rise in far-right parties. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates the question of how to foster pluralism and a cosmopolitan desire for living with others who are newcomers. It does so by investigating community-based, citizen-led initiatives that open communities to newcomers, such as refugees and migrants, and foster cultural pluralism in ways that transform understandings of who is a citizen and belongs to the community. This study focuses on initiatives which seek to build solidarity and social relations with newcomers, but in ways that challenge citizen/non-citizen binaries based on one of our field research sites: Berlin, Germany. The paper brings insights from critical citizenship studies, exploring how citizenship is constituted through everyday practices, into dialogue with radical cosmopolitanism, particularly through Derrida's works on 'unconditional hospitality'. This radical cosmopolitan literature theorizes possibilities for building relational ontologies between guest and host, citizen and newcomer, in ways that are not based on exclusion, but engagement with difference and which challenge antagonistic forms of self-other and citizen-non-citizen dichotomies. Illustrative examples based on community-led initiatives in Berlin demonstrate how this spirit of radical communitarianism is put into practice through everyday lived experience and demonstrate that it is possible to develop a cosmopolitan spirit through exchange and transformation of both the self and other by engaging with rather than seeking to eliminate difference in the aims of constituting a universal around which cosmopolitanism can be built.

Residents’ responses to refugee reception: the cracks and continuities between care and control

“…Ataç, Rygiel and Stierl (2016) do not employ such an overarching rubric and instead write that "acts of solidarity have occurred despite growing populist and right-wing responses to migrant arrivals" (528, emphasis added). A similar approach is implied in an article by Baban and Rygiel (2017), who point to the "simultaneous rise" (105, emphasis added) of far-right parties against a "backdrop" (98, emphasis added) of the solidarity initiatives. Another perspective is suggested by Rucht (2018), who conceives of mobilizations against refugees as a "social movement" (231) and considers "leftist and antifascist groups" as "counter-movements" (241, emphasis added).…”

“…Ataç, Rygiel, and Stierl (2016) present several studies on "political mobilizations by refugees, irregularized migrants, and solidarity activists", and Feischmidt, Pries, and Cantat (2019) edited a volume on "refugee protection and civil society". Youkhana and Sutter (2017) attend to the role of "civil society initiatives" that challenge the European border regime, and Baban and Rygiel (2017) investigate "community-based initiatives" led by citizens who open communities to "newcomers." In the Netherlands, scholarly attention includes a focus on "community initiatives for refugees" (Rast and Ghorashi 2018), "spontaneous volunteering and grassroots movements" (Boersma et al 2018), and "local communities, faith-based organizations, volunteers and refugees in the refugee reception process" (Rast et al 2019).…”

Transgressive Solidarity: From Europe’s Cities to the Mediterranean Sea

“…Following these scholars, while also heeding the extensive critique of humanitarianism, we go on to examine the political opportunities for solidarity work in response to state failures around migration. We are particularly interested in how particular spaces and places allow and limit forms of transgressive cosmopolitanism (Baban & Rygiel 2017;Rygiel & Baban 2019). In this way, the relationship between solidarity work, borders, and crises is important for our work.…”

“…The failure of EU states to ensure a dignified reception, with many resorting to violence and border reinforcement, encouraged a humanitarian response by citizens that has been described as ' a new dispositif of helping' (Fleischmann & Steinhilper 2017). As the border came more clearly into view within Europe, people responded with new imaginaries of citizenship and Europe (Baban & Rygiel 2017; De Genova 2017).…”

Patterns of Reflective Solidarity and Migrant Resistance in Copenhagen and Berlin

“…Another approach informing our understanding of solidarity is provided by critical citizenship studies. Baban and Rygiel’s (2017) approach to pro-migrant solidarity is premised on rethinking hospitality by placing the emphasis on the rights of the guests rather than the privileges of the host – a position inspired by French philosopher Jacques Derrida’s (2006: 113–114) concept of ‘unconditional hospitality’. However, our attention is centred on the political construction of solidarity, focusing on how different agencies, bodies, places and contexts generate and transform the character and form of solidarity (Bauder, 2019; Bauder and Juffs, 2020).…”