Homi K. Bhabha - 70 million refugees and the ethical core of citizenship

There are over 70 million displaced people in the world today, and the number is growing. This is roughly the size of the population of the 21st largest country in the world.

About Homi K. Bhabha

"I’m the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. I work on questions of race and representation.

I work on the politics of affiliation, the literature and culture of groups who are minorities, the ethics of refugees. The questions of dignity in art, culture and politics are very important for me. My work as a whole is aimed towards understanding the present moment because the past refuses to die and the future refuses to wait to be born."

Who is a citizen today?

There are over 70 million displaced people in the world today, and the number is growing. On present reckoning, it will grow much more strongly in time to come with climate change issues, civil wars and external incursions into various countries.

Over 70 million people today are displaced. This is roughly the size of the population of the 21st largest country in the world. I think it’s larger than Great Britain. Over 70 million displaced people, for me, are people who don’t have a nation, but they are people of a country that is entirely germane to the current situation that we are in. These 70 million people also represent the long history of the production of minorities, displaced people, with every turn in the large historical frame.

Now, if there are 70 million displaced people in the world today, every citizen has to recognise that she or he has a shadow – and that shadow is a displaced person. It could also be an undocumented person. It could be the person who comes and works in your garden or works on your house in America, who is undocumented and yet part of your own social fabric and allows you, supports you, to be a citizen.

Key Points

• There are over 70 million displaced people in the world today.
• The status of refugees, migrants and displaced people is a problem at the ethical core of the concept of citizenship.
• By actively seeking citizenship, non-citizens inspire us to expand our notions of human rights and citizenship.