Debt, the migrant, and the refugee: Lampedusa on stage

ABSTRACT

This article discusses Anders Lustgarten’s play, Lampedusa. The play is ostensibly about refugees and the Mediterranean crossing, as well as addressing EU migration, debt, and austerity. The article develops the idea of the debtor in neo-liberal economics suggesting that the refugee is required to become a debtor on settlement. While Lustgarten’s representation of refugees and migrants is not fully realised in that they are not enabled agents in the script or in performance, the article concludes that although the play is thus flawed, its characters’ search for moral restitution creates a thoughtful insight into British society and grounds for hope.

KEYWORDS:

• Debt
• debtor
• refugee
• hope
• austerity

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Matthew Linley, Director of Unity Theatre Liverpool, for his assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Stephanie Hemelryk Donald is Distinguished Professor of Film (Lincoln) and Visiting Professor at iCinema Research Centre (UNSW). Publications include There’s No Place Like Home: The Migrant Child in World Cinema (2018), Childhood and Nation in Contemporary World Cinema (2017), and Inert Cities: Globalization, Mobility and Suspension in Visual Culture (2014).

Notes

1 On the Unity Theatre website. http://www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk/lampedusa-3.html

The published print copy shows two men in a series by Alberto Pizzoli ‘Libya – Italy – Immigration’. Getty images. Stock images at: http://www.gettyimages.com.au/photos/alberto-pizzolilampedusa?excludenudity=true&mediatype=photography&page=2&phrase=alberto%20pizzoli%20Lampedusa&sort=mostpopular&family=editorial

2 Aminata is herself imagined on her journey by Modibo, placing her at another remove of desire and connection.

3 An analysis of the debt system in Canada indicated that 70% were either paid or paying off loan with data taken over a 10-year period. The Canadian Authority for Citizenship and Immigration concluded from their 2015 report that loans aided settlement (CACI, 2015, 40), see also Ben Pitcher (2016).

4 355C. A person to whom temporary protection is granted will be granted limited leave to enter or remain, which is not to be subject to a condition prohibiting employment, for a period not exceeding 12 months. On the expiry of this period, he will be entitled to apply for an extension of this limited leave for successive periods of six months thereafter.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-part-11a-temporary-protection (accessed 11 October 2017). ‘Barriers to education for those seeking asylum and refugees on temporary visas’, Refugee Council of Australia, July 2015. http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/1512-Education.pdf (accessed 13 October 2017).

5 This frustration and its capacity to nullify the subject were explored in the panel discussion, ‘Debt and the Modern Refugee’, held at the Tyree Room, UNSW, 4.12.2017 and featuring Tina M. Dixson, Om Dhungel, Rahim Savari.

6 Greg Noble also explores the rapidity in which citizens who are made to feel other to society lost their ontological bearing and confidence (2005).

7 My reference to the Biblical contradiction between the tax collectors (Matthew 11.19) and Jesus and his disciples as fisher of men is intentional, (Mark 1, 16–20).

8 Spruce compares the October 2013 introduction of Mare Nostrum search and rescue with the imperialist and Fascist aspirations of the 1940s to control the Mediterranean. Albahari points out that the EU procedures were less well funded than the original, but short-lived, Italian effort.

9 Bhimji’s phrasing is a neat encapsulation of arguments around representations and voice.

10 Dir. Steven Atkinson, High Tide Theatre Company, performed Unity Theatre Liverpool 24 September–3 October 2015.

11 An earlier version of the play – a three-hander which included a speaking role for Modibo’s wife Aminata, – was directed by Dritero Kaspari at Sweden’s Royal Dramatic Theatre.

12 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0991fb0/daily-politics-11102017 A discussion on a BBC Radio Show – Daily Politics – 11/10/2017. Archived version accessed 12 October 2017.

13 Notably, the work of Mathieu Wilcocks (UK), placed third in the Spot News section, included images of distressed children and adults on boats, and an aerial view of a corpse floating on the Mediterranean Sea, alone wearing an apparently useless life jacket. World Press Photo Awards, online. https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photo/2017/spot-news/mathieu-willcocks at New South Wales State Library, Sydney, May–June 2017, http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/world-press-photo-17

14 The referendum took place on the 23 June 2016. Results were announced on the 24th. http://www.bbc.com/news/politics/eu_referendum/results (accessed 25 May 2017). European Union (Notification of Withdrawal Act), 2017 is available at on the House of Commons website. http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2016-17/europeanunionnotificationofwithdrawal.html

15 For an acute and comprehensive recap of the sympathy versus empathy debate see (Cooke 2017, 153–169).

16 Brexit was the term applied to the campaign to leave the European Union, and the subsequent decision to do so. The neologism became a rallying call for both so-called Remain and Leave campaigners – the Remainers seeing Brexit and Brexiteers in a poor light. The word was, ironically perhaps, coined by a Remain campaigner, Peter Wilding. (Mosely 2016)

17 Liam Stanley, Joe Deville and Johnna Montgomerie have argued that digital support groups exist to provide advice and solidarity to debtors facing punitive creditors and collection agencies. There is little evidence that these approximate the identity politics of class groupings but there is some sense of radical refusal (as in the debt strikes seen in the USA):

In positing the existence of a moral economy of debt within which its more familiar economic relations are wrapped up, whether by contrasting narrowly defined economic responsibilities to notions of fairness, or by disputing a creditor’s moral authority to collect on a particular debt, forum contributors highlight the degree to which debt products are ethico-political constructions. (Stanley, Deville, and Montgomerie 2016, 82)

18 There is resonance with Kara Walker’s dissolving statues of sugar babies and a giant Sphinx-female slave made of sugar and installed in an old sugar refinery (Hamilakis 169–172). See also the installation Exit (2008–2015), inspired by Paul Virilio’s work on speed, migration and climate collapse. Recently (2016–2017) updated and presented in tandem with the Refugee Alternatives conference, Sydney. https://www.artdesign.unsw.edu.au/unsw-galleries/exit. Non-immersive version available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyMbF2uuSIw (accessed 1 January 2018).

19 Denise refers to this tactic in her first long speech, and only reveals the antidote when she has met Carolina and helps her with advice, placing the audience as potential debtors from whom trade secrets should be kept.

20 Author interview with debt collection lawyers (by telephone), Liverpool UK, September 2015.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this project was received from Australian Research Council [grant number FT110100007].