No Good Deed Goes Unrewarded: The Values/Virtues of Transnational Volunteerism in Neoliberal Capital

Global Society

Volumn 28, Issue 3, 2014, Pages 336-355

  Vrasti, Wanda ^a   Montsion, Jean Michel ^b  

^a HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY   (Germany)

^b YORK UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CITIZENSHIP; CULTURAL RELATIONS; EMPLOYMENT; NATIONALISM; NEOLIBERALISM; STUDENT; VOLUNTARY APPROACH;

BRITISH COLUMBIA; CANADA; GHANA; VANCOUVER [BRITISH COLUMBIA];

EID: 84900335143     PISSN: 13600826     EISSN: 1469798X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13600826.2014.900738     Document Type: Article

References (81)

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35. To qualify for permanent residency status under the Canadian Experience Class, international students must accumulate the equivalent of one year full-time work experience in Canada, a requirement that can also be fulfilled through volunteer work. As with any other work experience, this has to be documented and certified by the employer or, in this case, voluntary association. See Citizenship and Immigration Canada, "Canadian Experience Clasś, January 2010, available:,http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/cec/apply-who.asp. (accessed 27 January 2010).
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46. Although not an unprecedented form of travel, never before has volunteer tourism been so popular and so vocal. In the United States over a quarter of the population is interested in signing up. Meanwhile, in the UK there are about 800 organisations offering volunteer services abroad. Tourism is the largest growth industry and volunteer tourism is its fastest growing sector. Over the past couple of years commercial travel agencies, such as Travelocity, Cheaptickets, GAP Adventures, Travel Cuts and First Choice Holidays, have jumped on board, crowding out or joining forces with not-for-profit organisations, such as Habitat for Humanity and UnitedWay.
47. Aaron Dalton, "Voluntourism Trips for Do-Gooders: When Sipping Margaritas, Sunburning Yourself Poolside Loses its Luster", MSNBC.com, 4 February 2008, available:,http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19314446/. (accessed 18 May 2008)
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62. Projects Abroad, "Ghana Handbook", 2008, pp. 45-47, available:,http://www.projects-abroad.org/destinations/ghana/projects-abroad-in-ghana/. (accessed 13 March 2008).
63. Patricia [pseudonym]. Personal interview with a volunteer tourist in Ho, notebook of Vrasti, Ghana, 6 April 2009.
64. Certainly, Projects Abroad was partly to blame for these disappointments. From a strictly logistical point of view, Projects Abroad was not actively involved in managing work placements, communicating with the local staff or following up with volunteers. Often placements were poorly chosen, according to some cliché fantasies of humanitarian assistance, rather than organised around actual local needs and desires. On the other hand, however, the roots of volunteer apathy lie much deeper. For volunteers to feel "needed" the work must be continuous, it must be satisfying, challenging and rewarding, it must address local deficiencies and it must show quick results. This is not an easy task to accomplish for any organisation, especially considering that volunteers stay for a relatively short time, they lack appropriate skills and training and also expect to have enough free time to travel and relax.
65. Charles [pseudonym]. Personal interview with a volunteer tourist in Ho, notebook of Vrasti, Ghana, 18 April 2009.
66. Marion [pseudonym]. Personal interview with a volunteer tourist in Ho, notebook of Vrasti, Ghana, 17 April 2009.
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73. Ian Birrell, "Before You Pay to Volunteer Abroad, Think of the Harm You Might Do", The Guardian, 14 November 2010, available:,http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/14/orphans-cambodia-aids-holidays-madonna. (accessed 18 January 2013).
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78. Hannah Arendt was quite explicit that forms of sociality based on emotion (whether it is pity or pride, collective suffering or communal empowerment) tend to encourage non-public, non-political forms of association that function only through the voluntary disposition of like-minded individuals. The importance of strong affective bonds aside, Arendt warns us that these attachments can never translate into universalistic ideals or broad-based political movements, but are bound to remain tied to exclusionary, even disciplinary, face-to-face interactions.
79. Hannah Arendt, On Revolution (New York: Penguin Classics, 1991).
80. Ong, Flexible Citizenship, op. cit., p. 2.
81. Rose, op. cit., p. 1408.