Logistical Lives, Humanitarian Borders

This chapter investigates the connection between logistical thinking and humanitarian responses in current strategies of managing population movements and organizing humanitarian space in the context of South–South circulations. It analyzes the Brazilian response to the influx of Venezuelan migrants and asylum seekers, arguing that the militarization of humanitarian assistance has infused protection efforts with a logistical mindset and a specific spatial orientation. The chapter maintains that the experiences of migrants has been subsumed into a logistical framework where control over movement in a spatially structured manner has taken precedence over protection concerns and protection itself has been reduced to regularization and inclusion in a set of standardized, yet flexible procedures and infrastructures. The chapter is based on fieldwork conducted in the northern border region of Brazil and Venezuela between 2018 and 2023, as part of several research projects on lives in displacement and the situation of Venezuelans in Brazil.