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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/220994
Symbolic despotism as hypocrisy, desire and violence: The Ironies of Humanitarianism in Spain’s Asylum System
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Abstract
In an era when humanitarian credentials often serve as a moral badge, the Spanish asylum
system reveals a paradox: those tasked by providing care can become unwitting agents of
subtler form of tyranny. Beneath the veneer of altruism, the front-line social workers everyday
interactions with asylum seekers -often operating within overstretched bureaucraciesexemplify what we conceptualize as symbolic despotism, where the desire for control is
entrenched in the rhetoric of virtue.
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TUNABOYLU, Sevda and RUÉ, Alèxia. Symbolic despotism as hypocrisy, desire and violence: The Ironies of Humanitarianism in Spain’s Asylum System. Working paper from the MORE Project funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe Programme (Grant agreement ID: 101094107). [consulted: 10 of June of 2026]. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/220994