%0 Journal Article
%T Refugees, nationalism, and political membership
%A Signe Larsen
%J Nordicum-Mediterraneum
%D 2012
%I 
%X This essay aims to understand how refugees present a problem for liberal nation-states. The point of departure is Arendt¡¯s The Origins of Totalitarianism where she argues that the continual existence of refugees within liberal nation-states threatens to break down the principle of equality before the law thereby enabling the rise of police-states and totalitarianism. In light of this diagnosis, three of Arendt¡¯s philosophical heirs¡ªGiorgio Agamben, Seyla Benhabib and Peg Birmingham¡ªargue that it is necessary to think political membership in different and broader terms than national citizenship if we are to avoid a new rise of totalitarianism.
%K Homo sacer
%K human rights
%K nationalism
%K potentiality
%K the right to have rights
%U http://nome.unak.is/nm-marzo-2012/vol-7-n-3-2012/54-conference-paper/352-refugees-nationalism-and-political-membership