Living on the border: paradoxes, relationships, and professionalism in humanitarianism between Italy and Brazil

This contribution is meant to offer a few short reflections deriving from a comparative work between two research experiences: the former was done in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, the latter in an Italian city. In the Brazilian case the analysis concerned the assistance system for refugees and asylum-seekers in Rio, while in Italy the research focused on my experience as a reception operator in the anti-trafficking system. The two perspectives are very different but I am going to provide a few remarks concerning the two contexts by pointing out continuities and discontinuities characterizing the universe of the humanitarian, a world inhabited by volunteers, professionals and officials, with relational paradoxes concerning both the relationships with the ‘guests ‘ and the relationships with the other actors in the humanitarian field. What emerges is the presence of ambiguous relationships, paradoxical ties, inside which the social actors are situated more or less strategically or deliberately.