Philosophy Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-4-2026
Abstract
This paper develops a Spinozist social theory of anti-migrant affect by interpreting contemporary hostility toward immigration through the concept of invidia (envy). Drawing on recent empirical research on ‘superiority-seeking’, whereby individuals derive status utility from excluding others, the paper interprets invidia as an affective hatred of equality. For Spinoza, envy is caused not by actual material loss but from the imagination that misconceives shared goods as exclusive possessions. This social theory of invidia inverts readings that locate envy in migrants themselves, instead arguing that, in Spinoza’s Political Treatise, the democratic multitude harbours invidia against migrants when they are perceived as potential rivals of equal status. This helps explain why extending rights to migrants can provoke hostility even in the absence of real material or economic loss. Finally, the paper explores whether a non-rivalrous conception of political membership can mitigate these dynamics while still satisfying Spinoza’s account of the human striving for recognition. The paper concludes that overcoming anti-migrant hatred requires re-conceiving citizenship in terms of common ratios of living that may be shared collectively as expressions of the same infinite substance and power of Nature of which we are all a part.
Recommended Citation
Jobe, Kevin Scott. “Spinoza on Invidia: A Social Theory of Anti-Migrant Affect.” Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, May 2026, pp. 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/1600910X.2026.2662564.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory
DOI
10.1080/1600910X.2026.2662564
Comments
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory on May 4, 2026, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1600910X.2026.2662564