The refugee issue and the idea of belonging to the world in Hannah Arendt

Abstract

When we discourse upon the belonging to world and the refugee issue in Hannah Arendt, we sought to bring to light a discussion faced by the author, but that it becomes current, taking into account the hodiernal world conjuncture. Our problem focused on the following question: is it possible a world without welcoming human beings and their relationships? When we enquire ourselves about this, we confront the role of the international rights in face of the issue, especially, in what concerns to the tension between the human rights and sovereignty. In Hannah Arendt’s opinion, it occurred a flagrant incapacity of the human rights, and of the right, as law for protection and shelter of the stateless people and the refugees. In this context, the categories of world and refugee emerge as analytical categories to realize the idea of belonging. Still on this track, we sought to clarify the concept of world in Hannah Arendt for a better construction of our argumentation. We chose as methodology the textual exegesis, already established in philosophical studies. We pointed out as central corpus of our discussion the work: The Jewish Writings and, specially, the texts We refugees (1943) and The Human Condition (1958).