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Hola Robert,<br>
<br>
Thanks so much for your thoughts.<br>
<br>
Yes, I do think that constructing an ethics at the level of the
micro as opposed to the macro-scale is <br>
really important diagram. <br>
<br>
How much can communities open to flow of the strangers into their
zones of being? <br>
<br>
And to be aware that at the micro-scale even immigrant communities
may not be welcoming of immigrants.<br>
<br>
So that the call of total hospitality becoming more than hospitality
is not possible at any level or only in<br>
very specific forms, times, and places. <br>
<br>
That even the categories of refugees, immigrants, asylum seeker, and
economic immigrants cannot do justice to<br>
the specificity of individual needs, stories, and states of violence
each encounters back home or as homeless. <br>
<br>
(In Escape Routes one immigrant from Syria navigates the borders by
becoming different people-he "the end" his journey<br>
becoming a women who has been married and divorced twice-and now has
multiple "homeless" identities. Some of the<br>
of those citizens without borders chose to be imperceptible (an
never seek rights or representation that are equated with the<br>
police-state.) <br>
<br>
What is the calculus of decision, of an ethics-without-ethics, at
the macro-scale that allows some to cross and others to be denied?<br>
<br>
For instance I have come to understand that at the new border in
Germany-the process seems random, like<br>
a lottery? So that ethics of decision are not bound to "objective"
analysis of the individual-but instead an "objective" game<br>
of chance without-the-need-for-ethics. Or perhaps a higher-ethics of
chaosmosis. <br>
<br>
And either one failing before the singularities of each individual's
needs and reasons. And specific response awaiting them after they
across the line with even deeper states of alienation awaiting them,
even among the "own" communities. <br>
<br>
We end up is a space where their is hope but not for them or us in
finding an ethical calculus of crossing or being crossed. <br>
<br>
With Abrazos of Anti-Anti Utopianism,<br>
Ricardo<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/20/16 11:58 AM, Robert Irwin
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:56C8C554.2010104@ucdavis.edu" type="cite">
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Hello everyone,<br>
<br>
I have not had a chance to participate as much as I would have
like this week and I apologize. <br>
<br>
I think some important issues come up here. I think it is
important to get up as close as we can to the human experience of
migration from as many angles as possible in order to understand
its complexities and the ethical issues implied in assuming any
position, whether in our politics, our art or our academic work.<br>
<br>
I think the focus in the line of discussion here (below) on
hospitality is an important one. While we might tend to think
about hospitality in terms of a "nation" and whether or not it
"opens its doors" to refugees or other categories of migrant or
not (and I insist that although war refugees certainly are
deserving of attention, if accepting them means turning away
others that for not being war refugees are automatically
categorized as "economic immigrants", this response is ultimately
brutal and indefensible), this is a gross oversimplification, that
only begins to get at the diversity in human experience of
migration. The emigration of refugees is a form of violent
displacement; the deportation of "economic immigrants" is often a
form of displacement that is no less violent.<br>
<br>
There is a much read book in the US on historical processes of
Mexican migration called <i>Becoming Mexican American</i> (George
Sánchez 1995) that focuses on community building in Los Angeles.
Immigration is often thought in this way: migrants arriving and
gradually becoming comfortable as they are accepted into an ever
growing community of peers. However, many migration stories,
including those that are not merely about so-called circular
migration (in reference to those whose aim is only to earn some
money then return to their hometown), reflect not only rejection
by the mainstream of the host country (whether institutions,
vigilante groups, neighbors, etc.) but perhaps a lack of
hospitality among immigrant communities - stories of often abject
alienation that end in homelessness, incarceration, detention,
deportation. These stories are much less well known.<br>
<br>
The notion of community tends to be used very casually. Many
immigrants, even in the context of long established flows such as
the US-Mexico borderlands, are not unambiguously received by a
welcoming community of peers. Alienation is a more important part
of many individual stories than we tend to think. In many cases,
there is simply no community to receive them, but rather
individuals here and there who may or may not help them find
shelter, work, food.<br>
<br>
Ricardo defines unconditional hospitality in a way that would seem
to be untenable perhaps for even the most tolerant individuals
living in immigrant destinations, including those who manage to
settle in stable communities composed of fairly recent immigrants.
What would be a reasonable and viable ethical limit of conditional
hospitality? What variables might be used to define such a limit?
Would they have to do with the motives for their migration? the
potential consequences of their forced return? their state of
alienation? their state of material need?<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
<br>
Robert<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Hola,<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:56C87E25.20406@ucsd.edu" type="cite">
<blockquote
cite="mid:CANvRK-mJYGJPeb8WesxjhZSU56Zmje5hLmTFggJDEUMGrCD2dA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr"><span>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:13.3333px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue';color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Ricardo, thank you for the link to Alex Rivera’s film</span><span style="font-size:13.3333px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue';color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">. It is interesting to know this is happening in Newburgh. I’ve been there a few times and as a city it is struggling with cultural and economic development, this raises questions like:</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><b
style="font-weight:normal"><br>
</b></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:13.3333px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue';color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">How do migrant communities insert themselves into the communities they move to? </span></p>
</span></div>
</blockquote>
It depends on the double intersection of how the open the
communities are to the immigrants and to what degree a
pre-established<br>
ground has been staged by those immigrants that came before. <br>
<br>
Some individuals may never become a part of that the communities
they end up living for the rest of their lives-another Alex
Rivera<br>
film about his own father, who spends all his non-work life
watching Peruvian TV:<br>
<br>
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An experimental video about immigration. Looking at the potato
(which was first cultivated in Peru) Papapapá paints a picture
of a vegetable that has traveled and been transformed—following
the migrating potato North where it becomes the potato chip, the
couch potato, and the french fry. Papapapá simultaneously
follows another Peruvian in motion, the artist’s father, Augusto
Rivera. The stories of the two immigrants, the potato and Papa
Rivera, converge as Augusto becomes a Peruvian couch potato,
sitting on an American sofa, eating potato chips and watching
Spanish language television.<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.vdb.org/titles/papapapa">http://www.vdb.org/titles/papapapa</a><br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CANvRK-mJYGJPeb8WesxjhZSU56Zmje5hLmTFggJDEUMGrCD2dA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr"><span>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:13.3333px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue';color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:13.3333px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue';color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">And in return, how open or inviting is the place?</span></p>
</span></div>
</blockquote>
Yes, the question of "hospitality" is a core issue. This also
echos for me Derrida's 'possible’ conception of hospitality, in
which our most well-intentioned conceptions of hospitality
render the "other others" as strangers and refugees. Whether one
invokes the current international preoccupation with border
control, or simply the ubiquitous suburban fence and alarm
system, it seems that hospitality always posits some kind of
limit upon where the other can trespass, and hence has a
tendency to be rather inhospitable. On the other hand, as well
as demanding some kind of mastery of house, country or nation,
there is a sense in which the notion of hospitality demands a
welcoming of whomever, or whatever, may be in need of that
hospitality. It follows from this that unconditional
hospitality, or we might say 'impossible' hospitality, hence
involves a relinquishing of judgement and control in regard to
who will receive that hospitality. In other words, hospitality
also requires non-mastery, and the abandoning of all claims to
property, or ownership. If that is the case, however, the
ongoing possibility of hospitality thereby becomes circumvented,
as there is no longer the possibility of hosting anyone, as
again, there is no ownership or control.
<blockquote
cite="mid:CANvRK-mJYGJPeb8WesxjhZSU56Zmje5hLmTFggJDEUMGrCD2dA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr"><span>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><b
style="font-weight:normal"><br>
</b></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:13.3333px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue';color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">The challenges of working class immigrants integrating into American cities should not be generalized, but the remittance culture does imply a desire to return to one’s country of origin.</span></p>
</span></div>
</blockquote>
Yes, I agree, who is integrated, who is welcomed-as a number of
participants on the list serv has pointed is about class
integration speeds and abilities in the new space.<br>
<br>
And yes, remittance culture is the call of home that one wants
to return to-to be "homeless" to produce or maintain "home" as a
possibility.<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CANvRK-mJYGJPeb8WesxjhZSU56Zmje5hLmTFggJDEUMGrCD2dA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr"><span>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><b
style="font-weight:normal"><br>
</b></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:13.3333px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue';color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Grupo Union’s focussed goals in Boqueron seem key to navigating their many obstacles. The fragmentation of a life connected to disparate places is used as a tool for empowerment by establishing themselves in both cities and circulating the resources they have access to. </span></p>
</span></div>
</blockquote>
By transversing the fantasy, the impossible, the field of dreams
(a baseball field) they do create agency in the fractalilty of
being "homeless."<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CANvRK-mJYGJPeb8WesxjhZSU56Zmje5hLmTFggJDEUMGrCD2dA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr"><span>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><b
style="font-weight:normal"><br>
</b></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.656;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:13.3333px;font-family:'Helvetica Neue';color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">It becomes problematic however, if the undocumented in Newburgh, as in many other places, are isolated or disconnected from their immediate environment. </span></p>
</span></div>
</blockquote>
This is always/already the state of un-documented existences and
the always/already condition of networked cultures to some
degree.<br>
The condition of virtual immigration states of being. <br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CANvRK-mJYGJPeb8WesxjhZSU56Zmje5hLmTFggJDEUMGrCD2dA@mail.gmail.com"
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</p>
</span><span>
<p
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">Kindest
regards,</p>
</span></div>
</blockquote>
Sorry for the long response, Alva.<br>
<br>
Very best,<br>
Ricardo<br>
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<p
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">Alva</p>
</span></div>
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