Paper short abstract:

The partial outsourcing of services to the voluntary sector produces allegiances which break down distinctions between state and non-state actors. The state simultaneously comes into being and ceases to exist. Refugee service provision also troubles presumed connections between state and nation.

Paper long abstract:

The troubled connections of service delivery for refugees in Portugal, characterized by the partial outsourcing of services to the voluntary sector, produce shifting allegiances on all sides which break down the sharp distinction between state and non-state actors. The challenges are similar to those of playing cards: the search for clarification regarding the rules of the game and how to apply and manipulate them, the need for individuals - who may be adversaries in one round but partners in the next - to keep a constant eye on each other. The expectation of the same standard of public services for all and the desire for trust and coherency, result in responses that attempt to hold the automated state, runaway and defiant refugees and an overburdened and underfinanced third sector to account. Claims to rights and privacy are met with legal restrictions upon obligations to provide, demands for accountability and intrusion into personal matters; expectations of detached professionalism, on the other hand, sit uneasily with personal desires for human inter-subjectivity and the assertion of freedom of movement is met with the threat of loss of rights. These and other exchanges elucidate the centrality of brokerage for understanding how the state comes into being and ceases to exist from one moment to another, according to shifting subjectivities and allegiances. They take place within a wider context in which the idea of the state persists, although refugee service provision also troubles the presumed connections between state and nation.