“You Are Here in a Mini-UN.”
This article consists in an analysis of Canadian humanitarian structures and community organizations set up to welcome public refugees in Québec. The author proposes both a genealogical and anthropological view of the Canadian and Québec traditions of humanitarian reception based on interviews with refugees and community workers, and on speeches and policies bringing together reasons of state, economic reasons, humanitarianism and humanism. The analysis also considers the different forms that people’s identities take all throughout their journey, from exile to the settling of refugees in the host country. Whereas refugees tend to see the humanitarian structure as being vague and unclear, community workers are increasingly viewing it as a sort of cosmopolitical humanism, with an ensuing rejection of transnational humanitarianism. The relationship and contradictions between the humanitarian welcome and the dayly conditions highlight the paradox and limitations of Canadian benevolence, particularly with regard to citizenship and rights.