Thinking Christianly about Migration-A Review Essay

Not long before the last U.S. presidential election, on my pre-dawn bicycle ride to work, a companion Southern Californian road user in a car took umbrage at my having the audacity to signal to change lanes to turn left. Without nuance, we can claim that Rajendra draws on philosophy and sociology as...

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Published inChristian scholar's review Vol. 48; no. 3; pp. 311 - 317
Main Author Draycott, Andy
Format Book Review
LanguageEnglish
Published Holland Christian Scholar's Review 01.04.2019
Subjects
Citizens
Conversation
Empathy
Ethics
Immigration policy
Migrants
Migration
Noncitizens
Philosophy
Political philosophy
Politics
Sociology
System theory
Theology
Women
United States > US
Mexico
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Summary:Not long before the last U.S. presidential election, on my pre-dawn bicycle ride to work, a companion Southern Californian road user in a car took umbrage at my having the audacity to signal to change lanes to turn left. Without nuance, we can claim that Rajendra draws on philosophy and sociology as foils to formulate a Christian theological position, whereas Heimburger turns to the discipline of law for his formative conversation partner with theology. Because Rajendra does such a good job of locating contemporary discourse, and because Heimburger unwittingly takes up the main charge of her book in fruitful ways, I review their arguments consecutively, starting with Rajendra's Migrants and Citizens. (74) My additional observation is that migrants who are not citizens, such as myself, are also the ones who face these questions in our countries of reception-not only in patient and empathetic recognition of the considerations of our hosts, but as fellow deliberators, and in the case of Christian ethics, fellow citizens with the saints in the household of God. Because her goal is to provide a Christian theory of justice for the migrant, Rajendra also describes the ways her questions of the migrant among citizens is largely ignored by the political philosophy of the last half century. According to Heimburger, "alien" begins to function as the opposite of subject, although never alone.
ISSN:0017-2251