Giving space: Care, generosity and belonging in a UK asylum drop-in centre

► Practices of reciprocal care and exchange were central to the drop-in centre. ► Positions of belonging were maintained through normalised practices of care. ► These normalised practices reproduce the asylum seeker as a recipient of care. ► The asylum drop-in centre offers a site of considerable political potential. ► To tap such potential is to move beyond responses founded in compassion.