The over 60 million refugees in the world are not an “emergency”. In fact, they represent a phenomenon shedding light on the meaning of the verb “to inhabit”.
In a philosophical-political essay written in a clear and effective style, which debunks the stereotype of autochthony, Donatella Di Cesare distances herself from the myth of Mother Nature and of jus soli: exile – and not rootedness – is for Di Cesare the hallmark of our existence.
We are all “resident strangers”. We inhabit the earth but we do not have the right to claim property. We are all exiles, as in languages, where there are no proprietors, but only guests. With the end of modernity, global diaspora has unveiled a double deceit: the pretense of being autochthones, rooted in our native soil, entrenched in the assurance of our identity, on the one side, and the apparent alternative to this narrative, that is, the disenchanted embracing of technological motility, of continuous wandering on the other. In her reflection on inhabiting, Donatella Di Cesare proposes a third-way, which is both ethical and political: the “resident stranger”. “Resident strangers”, who break the atavistic bond with the place where they reside, with no feeling of nostalgia for lost motherlands, move beyond the mere demand of reception. Thus, conditions that are considered as dangerous by many – unwanted proximity, unwanted cohabitations – are actually the only ones allowing for cohabitation in a globalized world, where we are all received and called to receive.

Donatella Di Cesare is a professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the Università La Sapienza in Rome and of Philosophical Hermeneutics at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. She is one of the most active voices in the contemporary public debate. Among her latest books are: Grammatica dei tempi messianici [Grammar in messianic times] (2011), La giustizia deve essere di questo mondo [Justice has to be part of this world] (2012), Se Auschwitz è nulla. Contro il negazionismo [If Auschwitz is nothing. Against denial theories] (2012), Crimini contro l’ospitalità [Crimes against hospitality] (2014) and Terrore e modernità [Terror and modernity] (2017). With Bollati Boringhieri she published Israele. Terra, ritorno, anarchia [Israel. Land, returning and Anarchy] (2014), Heidegger e gli ebrei. I «quaderni neri» [Heidegger and the Jews. The «black books»] (2014), new and extended edition (2016), Heidegger & Sons. Eredità e futuro di un filosofo [Heidegger & Sons. Legacy and future of a philosopher] (2015), Tortura [Torture] (2016) and Stranieri residenti. Una filosofia della migrazione. [Resident Strangers. Philosophy of migration] (2017).