Reciprocity and Hospitality: What Narratives of Immigration Can Tell Us about Refugees

Stories about refugees abound: stories of deserving refugees, successful refugees, studious refugees and stories of refugees who fail or try to cheat the system. Similar stories are told about immigrant communities. This paper will be take place in two parts. First, it will look at media and scientific discourses about migration, particularly those discourses that frame the discussion around questions of reciprocity and hospitality, often framed as questions about what refugees or immigrants take and what they give back, in which the underlying assumption is that refugees or immigrants must prove their value. This paper will focus in particular on discourses within France, a country with a long history of immigration. The second part of the paper will look at connections between the stories of recent refugees and those of long-time immigrants. What can we learn from older immigrant narratives that may help us better understand more recent refugee narratives? Working from the assumption that many of today’s refugees are tomorrow’s immigrants settling in new homes, this paper argues that it is crucial to understand what kinds of stories lead to what kinds of outcomes – for both the refugee and the new communities they join.