Is European culture hospitable?

'Hospitality is culture itself.' This was a statement made by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, one of the leading 20th century intellectuals. But is European culture in fact hospitable? How does this ideal look in the wake of the worst refugee crisis since World War II?

In the new German anthology, Perspektiven europäischer Gastlichkeit, edited by Burkhard Liebsch, Michael Staudigl, and Philipp Stoellger, the editors have gathered classic and contemporary texts on hospitality to address issues of law, rights, the public sphere, borders and force.

Senior Researcher Robin May Schott contributes with an article, "Kant and Arendt on Hospitality.' Interpreting the key texts of the philosophers Immanuel Kant and Hannah Arendt on hospitality, she argues that a robust conception of hospitality not only provides a necessary guarantee to foreigners. Hospitality is also a reminder of the necessity for countries to protect the rights of all of their citizens within their own borders, who are vulnerable to becoming treated as foreigners in their own countries.