Borders and Hospitality

Conference/debate with Benjamin Boudou, political scientist and researcher at the Max Planck institute.

In light of the very rich news environment regarding the management of migration flows, the consequences of the control exerted over borders and the linkages of humanitarians to such mechanisms, we exchanged on the legitimacy of borders along with the uses of the notion of hospitality. Despite constant exposure to the political and news cycles, we have at MSF, very few occasions to delve into conceptual tools and reasoning offered by political science and philosophy. This encounter was the occasion to discuss and debate familiar notions and give them a deeper layer of understanding.

Benjamin Boudou is the author of two books recently published: Politique de l’hospitalité. Une généalogie conceptuelle, 2017, CNRS éditions and Le dilemme des frontières. Ethique et politique de l’immigration, 2018, Editions de l’EHESS.

Through the study of different types of hospitality (savage, antic, sacred, cosmo-political), Benjamin Boudou explores in his first book, the political dimension of the concept. Hospitality is not only a private virtue, but also a political practice aiming at the integration or inclusion of the foreigner, on which the rules of borders are built. These power and domination relations lead Benjamin Boudou, in his second book to question the legitimacy of borders, and to think about their democratization rather than their opening – in the sense that it goes hand in hand with democratic values.