Paper short abstract:

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the field of asylum in Italy, this paper explores aid workers’ attempts at re-instantiating their everyday work as a proper form of - moral - labour, as well as the underexplored continuity between humanitarian work and forms of political activism.

Paper long abstract:

A well-established body of anthropological research has underscored the depoliticizing effects of humanitarianism, by shedding light on how aid practices often end up - albeit mostly involuntarily - reproducing structures of power and control. In this paper, I engage with a reflection on the political subjectivities and possibilities that can emerge from within the workings of humanitarian systems. Drawing on long-term ethnographic engagement in the field of asylum in Italy, I explore practices, perceptions and “unruly feelings” (Fortier 2016) of aid workers engaged in everyday humanitarian assistance to refugees. In Italy in recent years, the sharp decline of refugee boat landings, coupled with growing hostility towards migration, prompted drastic budget cuts in refugee reception. This scenario exacerbated the multiple inadequacies of the asylum system. At the same time, it further deteriorated the already precarious working conditions of asylum workers, most of them overqualified young people hit by the consequences of economic recession. In the name of the moral imperative to offer care and support, they were often supposed to come to terms with their anger and frustration. Yet, some of them started engaging in – more or less explicit – forms of protest, organized around the recurring statement “we are not volunteers”. Those struggles hint at aid workers’ efforts to re-instantiate their everyday tasks as a proper form of (moral) labor. At the same time, they evoke the underexplored continuity between humanitarian work and forms of political activism.