Être réfugié et « volontaire: les travailleurs invisibles des dispositifs d’aide internationale

International aid is not only characterized by its dependence on resources. The very way that its redistributive efforts are organized has the effect of putting some beneficiaries “to work” via remunerated volunteer activity. In Lebanon, in a context marked by a limited access to labor market, this phenomenon has spread among Syrian refugees and aid workers alike, whether those of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or its local partners. In Beirut and Tripoli, the fact that these displaced Syrians are scattered across urban environments has made the issue of accessing beneficiaries central, particularly on the margins of such operations, places where humanitarian agents are not always free to travel. Tasks meant to be internally carried out by NGOs are thus conferred upon Syrian refugees, who constitute a new link in the system of aid delivery and are themselves beneficiaries of these organizations. I examine this aspect of the informal work performed by Syrian refugees - a reflection of the survival economy and/or small-scale professionalization - by profiling those involved in it and the paths that took them there.