New Books Network 160* Hannah Arendt's Refugee Politics (JP)
Nov 20, 2025
Dive into Hannah Arendt's complex views on identity and politics. Hear how she critiques ethnic nationalism while highlighting the importance of origins. Explore her 1943 essay warning refugees against hiding their backgrounds. John Plotz connects Arendt's ideas on plurality and natality to contemporary issues, contrasting her pariah ethics with mainstream 'good immigrant' narratives. Delve into how the refugee experience reshapes identity and her thoughts on independent thinking as resistance in dark times.
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Universalism With Identity Integrity
- Hannah Arendt combines Enlightenment universalism with a warning against disguising one's origins as immoral and dangerous.
- She champions 'conscious pariahs' who assert their identity rather than assimilate into oppressive majorities.
Plurality Grounds Rights
- Arendt argues plurality is essential: we are human in common but never identical, and that difference grounds political rights.
- Natality makes each person unique, so protecting individual rights preserves the space for distinct perspectives.
Concealment Enables Oppression
- Arendt links concealing identity to enabling crimes against humanity because oppressors single out bodies defined as different.
- Refusing to hide origins resists the logic that permits barbed-wire exclusion and mass violence.
