“And nobody here knows who I am”. The emigrants’ voice: Hannah Arendt, Winfried Georg Sebald, Georges Perec

Abstract

This article examines the status of immigrants through the analysis of texts by Arendt, Sebald and Perec. My aim is to explore the ethical and political dimensions of violence against foreigners by reflecting on the subject of the migrant. This kind of violence forces us to critically assess the idea of the sovereignty of the state. By challenging the very concept of sovereignty, my goal is to go deeply into the topic of political borders as seen from the concepts of mortality and the vulnerability of the other. The experience of cruelty that exiled people face, calls for primary responsibility: a responsibility shaped by care, attention and help, to answer the needs of the vulnerability of the human being who migrates.