“Ein Mensch ist kein Baum.” Vilém Flussers Phänomenologie der Einwanderung
Vilém Flusser was not only a multiple emigrant himself, he also analysed this experience, which he ultimately saw as an integral part of human existence, theoretically, culturally and philosophically. In the reception of this migration theory, little attention has been paid so far to an earlier, programmatic contribution from his Brazilian phase, which is therefore given special attention here: his plea “For a Phenomenology of Immigration” written in 1971 shortly before he remigrated again to Europe. With its counterpart, the “Philosophy of Emigration” written in 1966, it marks the beginning of a series of articles that deal with immigration and emigration as well as general migration, as featured in the philosophical autobiography Bodenlos and the text collection The Freedom of the Migrant.