Browsing by Author "Cilliers, Judy-Ann"

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    The refugee as citizen : the possibility of political membership in a cosmopolitan world
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-12) Cilliers, Judy-Ann; Roodt, Vasti; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this thesis is to determine what responsibilities democratic states have toward refugees. This problem is stated within the broader framework of the tension inherent in all democratic states: on the one hand, the sovereign right of a state over its territory and, on the other hand, the cosmopolitan or universal human rights norms upon which the state‟s constitution is founded. I argue that this tension is brought to the fore when refugees cross borders and enter into democratic territories, asking for protection and claiming their human rights. The sheer magnitude of the refugee crisis makes this an issue every state should address. My answer to the question of state responsibility is worked out in four phases. Firstly, I give a conceptual clarification of refugeehood, sovereignty, and cosmopolitanism. I show that neither absolute sovereignty (which implies closed borders) nor extreme cosmopolitanism (which implies no borders) is desirable. Secondly, I draw on Immanuel Kant‟s cosmopolitan theory as a possible solution. Kant proposes a world-federation of states in which right is realised on the civic, international, and cosmopolitan level. Kant also insists that every individual has the right to hospitality – a right which foreign states should recognise. Thirdly, I examine three prominent theories which could offer us a way to address the refugee crisis. I argue that the first two – multiculturalism and John Rawls‟ „law of peoples‟ – are not adequate responses to the refugee crisis, but that the third – Seyla Benhabib‟s cosmopolitan federalism – is more promising. Hospitality is the first responsibility states have toward refugees, and Benhabib proposes that it be institutionalised by (i) forming a federation of states founded on cosmopolitan principles, (ii) revising membership norms through the political process of democratic iterations, and (iii) extending some form of political membership to the state to refugees. Lastly, I justify the claim that political membership should be extended by referring to Hannah Arendt‟s argument that the ability to speak and act publicly is part of what it means to be human. If we deny refugees this ability, or if we deny them access to political processes, we deny their humanity. Benhabib proposes institutional measures to ensure that this does not happen, including allowing for political membership on sub-national, national, and supranational levels. Ultimately, I argue that democratic states have the responsibility to (i) allow entry to refugees, (ii) give refugees legal status and offer protection, and (ii) extend political membership to them on some level.
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    Stories of us and them : Xenophobia and political narratives
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University., 2020-03) Cilliers, Judy-Ann; Roodt, Vasti; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation aims to make sense of xenophobia as a specific idea of belonging and exclusion based on the idea of foreignness. I provide a conceptual and normative framework to help us understand xenophobia in terms of its origins, expressions, moral harms, and effects. The secondary aim of this dissertation is to determine how our individual and political identities contribute to individual xenophobic prejudices and acts of discrimination, as well as the construction and upholding of a xenophobic social and political order. Towards this latter aim I argue for a narrative conception of identity, and show how narratives can be xenophobic, but how they can also be conducive to creating a non-xenophobic world. To achieve these dual aims, my argument is worked out in five phases. Firstly, I distinguish xenophobia from racism, arguing that xenophobia differs in its origins and in its effect, which also constitutes its moral harm. The harm in xenophobia lies in a specific form of civic ostracism that excludes particular groups from benefits of civic membership based on ascriptions of foreignness that in turn is based on ideas about belonging. Secondly, I show that xenophobia’s origins lie in our ideas about foreignness and belonging, and it manifests in the prejudices that result from ingroup-outgroup differentiation. This is a response to the fear we feel in the face of strangers and the unfamiliar, a remnant of our evolutionary history. I suggest that in our early days as a species, antagonism toward the outgroup gave the ingroup the evolutionary advantage. Xenophobia is therefore a reaction to insecurity about our place and existence in the world, and the third phase of my argument considers place, belonging, and the harms of displacement. These themes are approached from the perspective of the xenophobe and the victim of xenophobia. Regarding the former, I show how a sense of the precariousness of one’s own belonging can lead one to seek belonging in the false home offered by nationalism and other exclusionary identities and groupings, with xenophobic discrimination as the result. This excludes the victim of xenophobia from the possibility of belonging, making them vulnerable to the particular harms of displacement. The fourth phase considers the narrative theory of identity, connecting our sense of belonging to our identities and to the narratives we tell about ourselves, our groups, outsiders, and the places we are situated in. The narratives we share and the identities which result from them can be more or less xenophobic, and in the final phase of this dissertation I analyse xenophobic narratives and provide directions that counternarratives can follow to counter xenophobia, on the institutional and individual level. A novel direction for implementing such narratives is provided, inspired by xenophobia’s origins in human evolution: playing and games, strategies which are conducive to relationship formation and collaboration. If xenophobia is a response to apprehensions of belonging, as this dissertation argues, a solution to xenophobia needs to be found rethinking our identities, our place in the world, and in promoting trust and collaboration.