Abstract

In this essay we try to demonstrate how refugees crisis are not only a juridical and diplomatic problem, but may jeopardize the rule of law which constitutes the basis of western democracy. We propose a critical analysis of the chapters VIII and IX of The Origins of Totalitarianism, identifying the parallels between the problem of stateless people in the 1920s/ 1930s and the current phenomenon of migrants. Furthermore, we spotlight how the formal procedures in such cases reflect the change of the relation between state and citizens, which consists in the gradual expansion of the space of ‘bare life’.