Applied anthropology has a long controversial history, usually traced back to the colonialist and imperialist structures of power and domination. On the other hand, over the past two decades, there has been increased interest in community-engaged research in academia. Against this backdrop, the paper invites to reflect on what can be called ‘anthropological debt’: the obligation of ‘giving back’ to the human and non-human beings we work on, to the communities we desire to mingle with, to the places we intrude into for research purposes. How is it possible to reconcile research with advocacy and action, without reproducing and creating new forms of asymmetries between the researcher and the researched? With this question in mind, the paper discusses the legitimacy and effectiveness of applied anthropology in engaging with the current social reality, by accentuating the ethico-political issues involved in this sub-discipline and reflecting on probable solutions.