XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)

6

Migration and Displacement: Beyond Borders and States

Language: English

The social and political efforts towards producing more democratic and just societies have engendered different forms of violence that generates migration and displacement. The latter have also produced societal violence in ‘host’ societies, where ironically hospitality has been tinged with hostility and xenophobia. While many countries have refused to receive refugees, the few receptive ones have demonstrated a ‘politics of pity’ rather than a ‘politics of compassion.’    The language of integration and cultural assimilation is often invoked. Such a trope is essentially hegemonic, operating within a discursive frame that privileges citizenship rights/entitlements and obligations above all other identities. This generates a politics of exclusion which is reflected concretely in physical, moral and political containment of migrants in new enclaves and thus social disengagement from the ‘locals.’  A move towards a politics of inclusion would require all parties to transcend these ‘local-foreign’ divides, privilege other identities and make connections.