Where ethics and politics meet

Abstract

I examine the role of humanitarianism and compassion in an emergent ethical configuration that makes illness a primary means by which undocumented immigrants obtain legal residency ("papers") in France. I argue that the sacred place of biological integrity in this ethical discourse leads immigrants to trade in biological integrity for political recognition. I demonstrate first how humanitarianism has been transformed into a form of politics, functioning as a transnational system of governance tied to capital and labor even while purporting to be apolitical. I focus in the second half of the article on the consequences of humanitarianism as politics, which include new biopolitical practices, unexpected diseased and disabled citizens, and a limited version of what it means to be human. [medical humanitarianism, human rights, France, anthropology of ethics, biopolitics, immigration, citizenship]

The Jewish State of Anxiety: Between Moral Obligation and Fearism in the Treatment of African Asylum Seekers in Israel

“…For if a nation state was easily acknowledging the claims of all asylum seekers, and including them within its regime of citizenship, then it would be blurring the distinction between its own nationals and, potentially, the rest of the world's population. We thus enter the realm of symbolic power, whereby states-which are able to fashion the dominant visions and divisions in society, through their control over categorisation, education and policing-are forced to make the point that politically recognising asylum seekers can only be done on exceptional humanitarian grounds (Ticktin 2006). This exceptionality reinforces the de facto moral geography in which regimes of citizenship are always located on a higher plain than that of human rights.…”

New immortalities: Death, donation, and dedication in the twenty-first century

“…Rose and Novas (2005) provide a different spin to biocitizenship with their emphasis on the increasing centrality of medicine, genetics, and genomics in contemporary expressions of identity and social relationships and, crucially, how they form the basis for entitlement or exclusion (see also Rose 2006). Similarly, Ticktin's (2006) work on illegal immigrants in France draws attention to how certain illness classifications (and notably being HIV positive) are linked to health care entitlements and welfare rights. Adjusting course slightly, Egorova and Perwez (2013) describe how a complex tangle of cultural, religious, and genetic classifications enable members of a low caste (dalits) in South India to claim Jewish descent as the Bene Aphraim and thereby the right of return to Israel.…”

Bringing Law into the Political Sociology of Humanitarianism

“…This literature has predominantly concerned itself with how people -decision makers, donors, recipients and practitioners -interact with the discourses, institutions, symbolisms, structures, and rules of humanitarianism. 26 Of particular interest have been practices and representations of testimonies and witnessing; 27 forced displacement 28 and refugee camps; 29 as well as humanitarian goods 30 and medical humanitarianism. 31 The subfield of legal anthropology has also seen a rising engagement with humanitarianism.…”