Refugees' Stories: Empathy, Agency, and Solidarity

Abstract

By implication, it is the absence or failure of solidarity that allows xenophobia to speak louder than reason. If we are to solve the crisis, that is, if we are to respond adequately to the human need that is urgently manifest, we need not just political institutions and agreements about burden sharing, but also more solidarity. 2 Thus, as well as asking what practical actions must be taken, and by whom, we must also ask how we can foster and sustain solidaristic attitudes. One answer is to tell stories, or better, to facilitate the means and the space for refugees to tell their own stories, and to amplify their voices. As Diana T. Meyers (2018, 23) argues, "By dispelling ignorance of or confusion about victims' moral claims, empathy with victims' stories can erode indifference to them." Activists deploy refugees' stories to engage the wider public and garner support for their cause. Mainstream news reports focus on specific stories to illustrate widespread injustices. Scholars use refugees' stories (some fact, some fiction) in academic writing on refugee or migration issues (e.g., Miller 2016). This suggests some consensus around the thought that through the telling of refugees' stories, understanding is enlarged, and empathy is engaged. I do not claim that hearing stories is, on its own, sufficient to generate solidarity, only that it has a valuable role to play. While this role is assumed in everyday practice by media editors, activists, and others, and is invoked by some theorists of solidarity and cosmopolitan norms, 3 it is currently undertheorized. There has been some recent philosophical discussion of the ethics of storytelling (

The potential of games for vulnerable groups like refugees: a scoping review

“…Hearing, seeing and feeling refugees’ stories can develop empathy in users and increase their knowledge and understanding of their lives, needs and desires ( 20 ) . Refugee stories function, therefore, as a second-order form of engagement with the refugees themselves and as a gesture to demonstrate trustworthiness ( 20 , 21 ) . The stories visible in the games allude to attitudes, values and judgments in order to reflect, recognize, empathize with or criticize human rights violations ( 15 , 16 ) .…”

“…The others (5,(9)(10)(11)(12)14) are games to reduce stereotypes and improve empathy, which allows us to answer the second question of this review about games that promote greater cultural sensitivity towards refugees. Hearing, seeing and feeling refugees' stories can develop empathy in users and increase their knowledge and understanding of their lives, needs and desires (20) . Refugee stories function, therefore, as a second-order form of engagement with the refugees themselves and as a gesture to demonstrate trustworthiness (20,21) .…”

Normative Demand for Deference in Political Solidarity

“…Rather, it is recognition of the distinct limitations of one's knowledge or authority to legitimately speak and act within the domain of oppression or injustice where one does not have lived experience. The virtues of empathy, openness and listening have all been discussed in feminist literature, and in liberal scholarship on democratic deliberation, as correctives to this challenge (Friedman, 2004;Macedo 2000;Stauffer, 2015;Woods, 2020;Young, 1997). Note that the overwhelming majority of this literature focuses on building understanding within societies and communities.…”

“…Note that the overwhelming majority of this literature focuses on building understanding within societies and communities. With few exceptions (e.g., Code, 1998;Khader, 2019;Woods, 2020), less attention is paid to these challenges at transnational and global levels. We will say more below about how something that pulls back from a gold standard of NDD-directed engagement might be particularly relevant to solidarity across greater differences and distances.…”

Specters of Minks: Postcapitalist Elegies and Multispecies Solidarities

“…In relation to recent work on the intersection of stories, narratives, and political solidarity, the drift narrative functions as a (multispecies) ghost narrative and thus might have a 'valuable role to play' in generating solidarity. 107 Yet spectral solidarity, as informed by Susan Howe, eschews the clarity of narrative by embracing 'stumbling', 'stuttering', and textual forms of 'wandering'. 108 Textuality, in this sense, sounds desire for solidarity through poetic stutter-rhythms that raise the uncertain demands of the dead.…”