Kant and Arendt on Hospitality

With the intensification of civil wars and genocide in the 20th century, it is crucial to focus on the issues involved with the movement of populations across national borders during and after conflict. By the year 2000, the number of individuals who lived in countries other than their own was 175 million, and the number of refugees and asylum-seekers has reached 20 million. What are the rights of individuals who have crossed national borders to protect their lives? The question of the rights of individuals who have crossed national borders was already addressed by Immanuel Kant in his 1795 essay, “To Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch”. In the third article, Kant addresses the necessity for establishing the universal conditions of hospitality (Hospitalität). Kant’s reflections on hospitality were important for Hannah Arendt, one of the philosophers who thought in most depth and complexity about war and the displacement of populations in the 20th century. I will suggest that for both thinkers, hospitality requires maintaining the distinction between citizen and foreigner, as opposed to dissolving these categories into an overarching category of world citizenship. From a pragmatic point of view, the protection of national citizenship rights is crucial for the protection of universal human rights. In order to protect citizenship rights, one must acknowledge the political vulnerability citizens have to losing their rights, to becoming a foreigner in their own country. In this spirit, a robust conception of hospitality not only provides necessary guarantees to foreigners, but it is a reminder of the necessity of protecting the rights of citizens, who are vulnerable to becoming foreigners.