Scotland’s future, hospitality and social healing

Abstract

The Referendum on Independence for Scotland, 18 September 2014, provides the context for this article. The Referendum is controversial. It focuses on the right of people to self-determination. The controversies of how a nation might constitute itself have been an important feature of wide-ranging grassroots discussions and political meetings since the date of the Referendum was announced and the White Paper: Scotland’s Future was published in November 2013. This article charts the controversies of who might be a member of a future nation, and what happens when decision-making occurs, in refugee and asylum determination cases, to exclude or to set aside humanitarian protection for political purposes. As such this article provides a note from present day controversies around hospitality and society and the way these terms are contested in national and community struggles for inclusion, protection and justice.