THE TOURIST AND THE MIGRANT – TWO FACES OF THE 21ST CENTURY COSMOPOLITANISM

Abstract

It is no big secret that in our world of great economic inequalities, belonging to somepolitical communities is just more valuable than belonging to others. And this divide is exactlywhat differentiates contemporary "unwoken" cosmopolitans into two categories – the touristand the migrant. In a certain way, both of those ideal figures embody cosmopolitan values ofearlier times, as they are "transgressing" the political borders of communities. Although boththe tourist and the migrant with their transgressions are helping the intercommunal exchangeand understanding between the peoples, their societal acceptance is wildly different. Whiletourists are rarely unwelcomed, mainly because they do not interact profoundly with domesticpopulation as they intend to return to their point of origin, migrants with their wish for "deeperconnections" are viewed with suspicion, if not outright hatred. And this difference stronglyputs into question the principle of hospitality, which is, following the work of ImmanuelKant, considered a basic building block of modern cosmopolitan theory. Finally, this paperwill try to make case that for the true cosmopolitan ideals to take hold, there is a need for areformulation of the current idea of hospitality, from the one based on the economy towardsthe one based on humanistic ideals. And this need is especially more pressing considering theturn of events provoked by the global pandemic, which are strengthening and slowly closingthe borders between our countries and each other.