GRANDES DESPLAZAMIENTOS 1 INTRODUCCIÓN.

Even though voluntourism is in high demand, and several people do benefit or earn a lot by being a part of the voluntourism market, there is also criticism about it. Companies charge huge amounts of money from people in the Western world to place them in a project abroad. Additionally, it is said that the young people benefit from their experience. However, it is essential to evaluate it carefully and keep the focus on what is important. Volunteers are involved with vulnerable and less fortunate communities and individuals. Their main goal – including the organisations that recruit them - should be to achieve positive change and to create community development to help the vulnerable. Nevertheless, this is not always the case in developmental projects and the work of their voluntourists. A positive outcome of volunteers and voluntourists travelling to foreign countries and cultures is that they have an opportunity to get to know other cultures and to understand other ways of living and interaction. Hartman et al. (2014) suggested that this can possibly support a more peaceful world and solidarity. This is influenced by an increasing international understanding and tolerance for each other and between different cultures (Raymond & Hall, 2008). Guttentag (2009) assumes that the personal growth and the increased intercultural understanding is bigger on the side of the volunteers than on local communities.

According to other researchers, volunteers benefit from their experiences by improving their confidence, motivation and are able to acquire new skills (Alexander, 2012; Birdwell, 2011). Through their experiences, it is assumed that they extend their horizons and improve their self-confidence, leadership and team-working skills, which increases their chances of finding better jobs (Birdwell, 2011; Foller-Carroll & Charlebois, 2016). Birdwell (2011) contends that the personal development of volunteers and voluntourists is also directly linked to the assumption that both have a

38 positive impact on communities abroad and that all stakeholders benefit from these projects.

Even though voluntourism is seen as a niche of tourism itself, it often takes place in destinations where a typical tourist would probably never travel because of a lack of infrastructure or for safety reasons. Voluntourism projects make new destinations available and take tourists to places which would normally be excluded from everyday tourism (Fitzpatrick, 2007). Additionally, voluntourism brings funds that volunteers spend in communities during their volunteer experience; they also spend even more money in the country and region when they decide to travel (McGloin & Georgeou, 2016). As a result, this creates opportunities for local people and gives them a chance to earn money and to help their own development.

A big issue on the negative side is the possibility of the demonstration effect. This effect is about the life the local people are being exposed to by getting to know the volunteers and their way of living. It can easily lead to jealousy, or it can create desires predominantly among the young people in the host community, which they might never be able to fulfil (Clifton & Benson, 2006). Young people are in danger of the demonstration effect because they are more likely to be influenced by others than adults (Wall & Mathieson, 2006).

Every foreign volunteer comes with an aspiration and his/her own desire to create a difference. They often think their opinions and values are the ones which count and they want their host community to ‘benefit’ from them (Guttentag, 2009). Divergent suggestions, thoughts and beliefs of local workers or people of the host community, are often seen as not important and are often ignored by volunteers (Guttentag, 2009). Many try to ‘force’ their ideas on their host community even when they know very little about the host society or the people’s needs and interests (Guttentag, 2011; Simpson, 2004). Additionally, the projects might not achieve their developmental goals because volunteers can have a negative impact on the projects. It should be important for the host communities to ensure that they preserve their own culture, their local language and that they focus on what they need most (McGloin & Georgeou, 2016).

According to some researchers, the length of stay of volunteers has an important impact on the outcome of the projects and initiatives (Birdwell, 2011; McGloin &

39 Georgeou, 2016). According to Birdwell (2011), the influence of volunteers on their own development rises with the length of stay, and the best impact takes place in projects where volunteers stayed longer than six months (Birdwell, 2011). This declaration might also be transferable to the impact on host communities, as it is suggested that better returns for the volunteers also result in better outcomes for host communities. McGloin & Georgeou (2016) question the impact of short-term volunteering, claiming that to ensure a positive impact, volunteers must stay in a community at least six months or even longer. However, the norm is the approach that sees short-term engagement, with Western volunteer organisations and companies creating a simple view of ‘the other’, and sell their ‘products’, while claiming to be ‘different’ and that this is something everybody has to experience (Simpson, 2004).

Some people even define voluntourism as a new form of colonialism and dependency creation (Guttentag, 2009; Hammersley, 2014). Decisions at the projects, and what voluntourists do, are often top-down managed by western organisations and companies, without involving local stakeholders. For this reason, voluntourism is often called a new ‘form of western-imposed colonialism’ (Guttentag, 2011; Simpson, 2004). Voluntourists and their organisations are often promoting a cycle of dependency by influencing the environment in a way that the host communities are getting used to their work and cannot function without it (Guttentag, 2009).

Additionally, it is also seen as a way of exploitation of local people, because the volunteers often even take jobs from them (Guttentag, 2011; International Friends, 2017; Simpson, 2004). Voluntourists are often performing work where no expertise or special knowledge is needed, jobs which could easily be done by any local person (Guttentag, 2011; Simpson, 2004). Voluntourists do those jobs for free, or sometimes even pay huge amounts of money for the opportunity to do them. This, in turn, weakens the competition of local workers involved from the host communities (Guttentag, 2009). On the other hand, however, educated and experienced volunteers who stay for a long time often bring knowledge and expertise which is not available in those communities. Jones (2011) furthermore claimed that voluntourists convert their experiences, and their gathered knowledge and skills into the economic capital in their home country. The participation in volunteer projects could easily ‘make a difference’ when they apply for a job after they go back to their country (Jones, 2011).

40 The commonly promoted assumption about volunteers ‘making a difference’ would mean that the volunteer has the required and necessary knowledge, expertise, power and capacity that is needed in order to create positive social change (McGloin & Georgeou, 2016). This is very questionable for voluntourists since for most short-term volunteer experiences there is no need for experience, knowledge or special skills - no need to know the local culture or language. For some researchers, this brings into question the contribution that can be provided by voluntourism and the assumption that they can make a difference (Raymond & Hall, 2008; Simpson, 2004).

Guttentag (2009) went further and said that voluntourists can even inhibit work progress in communities where they work. A manager who was interviewed during his research, which was conducted in Kenya, confirmed this but said that they are still working with volunteers because they help generate awareness for their organisation and projects. It is questionable if the awareness alone might help, while the original work that needs to be done is hindered by the voluntourists. Furthermore, most of the time there are no background checks done on volunteers, no matter what work they are doing (MoSVY, 2011), even if they work with vulnerable people and children, as is the case in orphanages and schools. This creates a great risk for the children living or studying there (MoSVY, 2011).

As voluntourism is seen to be an open market, more people want to participate in these projects and more private companies want to sell these experiences (Sharp & Dear, 2013). As it is getting increasingly commercialised, it jeopardizes the involved communities abroad and their environment (Raymond & Hall, 2008). Companies and organisations in the western world are often not directly engaged with local communities and their needs. They are often not interested in their desires because their interest is in accelerating their business and making money, which comes from the voluntourists, and not from the affected communities abroad (Wearing & McGehee, 2013). This is different to the focus and the aims of most NGOs, which are usually getting established as non-profit organisations to contribute to community development and to support local communities. Nevertheless, the NGOs are also in need of volunteers in order to achieve their goals (Wearing & McGehee, 2013). While many voluntourist organisations from the western world are taking the interests of their paying customers over the needs of the host communities (Foller-Carroll & Charlebois, 2016; Wearing & McGehee, 2013), it is even suggested that for-profit organisations

41 from abroad should stop sending voluntourists to developing countries because they are not interested in their needs at all (MoSVY, 2011).

Finally, there is one very important point to mention: the absence of a ‘shared vision between stakeholders’ (McGehee, 2012). This summarises many of the mentioned issues because the interests of being part of a volunteer project are very diverse. Some do it to improve their own skills, some to gain more money and power, others to support vulnerable populations and create local development, and last, but not least, to improve the host communities because they need help. The absence of a shared vision might be a substantial barrier to creating successful and sustainable projects that are supported by volunteers. Therefore, it is important to remember why those projects were established and that each stakeholder should try to support its aims.

2.2.5 A critical view of volunteers and their contribution to quality ECD and