"Because We Are a Community of Refugees" : An Ethnographic Study on Church Asylum in Germany

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Asylum is a socio-historical phenomenon which is highly thought-provoking whendeveloping an anthropological study on relationality to the other of a society. This ethnographicstudy focuses on church asylum(Kirchenasyl)in contemporary German society. Church asylumin the postmodern era means the protection of a foreign refugee threatened with deportationwithin the property of a church community. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the meaningof church asylum for its practitioners from their own terms of reference. In order to locate theresearch question,I give an overview of the historical transformation of asylum. Set against thiscontext, I describe in outline a case of church asylum. Among several analytical points, oneaspect of contemporary church asylum, i.e. hospitality to strangers, is theoretically examined indetail. Results reveal that certain practitioners of church asylum articulate a unique type ofself-perception. They reported that they rediscovered their own or their church communityʼsnature as refugee or stranger through personal contact with refugees during church asylum, andthis emergent self-perception enhanced their primary reason to receive foreign refugees:a localchurch community that receives a stranger defines itself as a stranger. This type of compassionatehospitality represents a questioning of state sovereignty over the acceptance and exclusion of arefugee. It also implies a transnational imagination that enables community members to connectthemselves to foreign refugees going beyond their imagined national identity.
北海道大学の論文

"Because We Are a Community of Refugees" : An Ethnographic Study on Church Asylum in Germany

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