Membership Metaphors as "Doorkeepers"

Migration and refuge are among the most controversial topics of the present. This is also true for the field of philosophy. Demands for inclusion or exclusion of strangers, the conditions of cosmopolitan rights in a world fractured by (state) borders, or humanitarian obligations with regard to hospitality and asylum are controversially debated. Philosophical opinions on these issues diverge significantly, and the argumentati ons sometimes reach opposing conclusions. As diverse as philosophical discourses on migration and refuge may be, one commonality that can be repeatedly noted is the frequent use of metaphors and analogies in the development of arguments. For example, there are several references to the state as a club, a family, or even a living room. The request for membership is sometimes paraphrased as a request for marriage. The legitimacy of deportations is even discussed by analogy with the right to abortion. The use of such and other metaphors and analogies has not been researched specifically before and will be brought into the focus of scholarly attention by our research project. The project is based at the Departments of Philosophy of the Universities of Innsbruck (project leader) and Graz (national research partner). In particular, we want to show (1) which metaphors and analogies are used in philosophical texts on migration and refuge, (2) how these metaphors and analogies are used argumentatively, (3) which political and economic interests they reflect in the process, but also (4) which connections there are between academic discourses and public controversies. Methodologically, we will tie in with philosophical metaphorology and at the same time develop it further into a critical metaphorology of philosophical discourses on migration and refuge. To this end, we will create our own database of relevant text passages and, through detailed studies of the text corpus, examine whether and to what extent these metaphors of membership are metaphorical doorkeepers that structure philosophical reflection on flight and migration and prejudice argumentation through suggestive images of speech. This metaphorological critique will illustrate that metaphors and analogies play a significant role in contemporary understandings of migration and refuge, and that problematizing their use can help us learn to think differently about these contested topics.