ABSTRACT
Hospitality is fundamentally about the ethics and politics of relating to others. Hospitality takes place between the hosts and the guests, governing the encounter with the stranger and the relationship between self and other (Westmoreland 2008). In Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness (2001), Derrida notes how Kant advocated the right of the ‘guest’ to ask for refuge as a categorical imperative as a result of the ‘common possession of the earth’ by all human beings. Kant placed two conditions on this right. The right could not be equated with the right to demand permanent residence, and the entry rights relied on the ‘hosts’’ acceptance of the ‘guest’ and a special contract being drawn up for longer stays.
