Hospitality, Power and the Paradox of Welcoming Strangers

Anthropologists often view hospitality as an unequal relationship between hosts and guests, shaped by exchange, obligation and power. Jacques Derrida distinguishes between unconditional hospitality and conditional hospitality. He argues that welcoming someone as a stranger can carry an element of distance or hostility, a tension he calls “hostipitality”. Hospitality can protect travellers and reduce fear between strangers, but it can also determine who is accepted and who is excluded. Julia Kristeva warns that hospitality can become exploitative when vulnerable outsiders are welcomed only to be dispossessed. Anthony Pagden also notes that ideas of free passage and hospitality were historically used to justify the conquest of the Americas. These perspectives show that hospitality is not only a moral practice; it can also be a political institution that is used to protect or oppress.

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