Sylvie Mazzella and Bernard Mossé, «De l'hospitalité», Approaches, n°191 «Migrations» autumn-winter 2025/2026, pp.11-24.

Issue summary:

If there is one issue that gives rise to passionate debate, dogmatic or even hateful stances and highly questionable political decisions, it is migration. Unless we are talking about immigration, seen by some as a dangerous invasion that we should guard against at all costs, taking refuge behind walls and barbed wire... Yet we know that this is how the world was populated, because people sought a better place to live elsewhere. What could be more natural than to leave for a better life, or simply to survive when war is raging in one's homeland?

If we put our fantasies to one side for a moment, it becomes clear that welcoming other people, foreigners, onto our soil, be they innocent summer tourists, refugees, asylum seekers, economic or climatic migrants... is by no means self-evident. We are all creatures of culture, and when we move, we take with us the things that make up our identity: our language - or our way of speaking, our traditions, our religion, our values, etc. It goes without saying that confronting a newcomer brings us face to face with ourselves. To welcome or not to welcome; to welcome «with open arms» or because there is no other way. If tolerance is a virtue as well as an intellectual attitude, it's because our first reaction is rejection and withdrawal. A little understanding, however, an effort to open up to others, would make it easier to meet and discover them. If we listen to him at all, we can see that all migrants, whether by choice or under duress, experience exile and uprooting. It is therefore legitimate for them to keep within themselves everything that still attaches them to their country or region of origin. Staying in touch with your loved ones, far away, but above all, with yourself, so much does the land from which you come shape who you are...

Link to the issue