A Human Touch Across the Hall

This study offers an insight to volunteers who practice voluntary activities at a reception centre for refugees in the outskirts of Oslo. An analysis of interaction, perceptions and expectations depicts what motivates and creates meaning in the relationship between volunteers and refugees from the former´s point of view. This is addressed in light of what the voluntary role consists of through demands of distance and desires of closeness – a duality which become a relevant approach as the participant observations and interviews reveal how the volunteers experience being pulled in two directions. The volunteers want to create close relations, but find certain limitations in the contextual frame when meeting with the refugees.