Sure!



At it’s most basic, Voluntourism is when people (usually from rich countries) go to other places (usually poor countries) and do some kind of volunteer work, usually for a week or two, sometimes longer. Often what they do is “build a school” or “dig a well” or “work in an orphanage”. Sounds good, right? You’re not just some kind of obnoxious tourist: you’re doing Good Works and making the world a better place.



Well, no, it’s not good. My friend who volunteered for Engineers Without Borders explained it to me this way: You know how people in the USA are really worried about foreigners “stealing jobs”? Well, imagine that jobs in the USA are really scarce, that the foreigners are really rich and work for no pay, and have legal status in the country. That’s what voluntourists are like. On a really basic level, it’s bad for the local economy, especially because the work that voluntourists are doing tends to be the lowest of low-skill work that you *really should be paying local people to do*.



There are other problems, though: Voluntourists don’t usually do needs assessments, which is just a fancy way of saying that they care more about the cool photos they get to take or the *meaningful life experiences* they will have than what is actually necessary in the place they are visiting. Voluntourists build wells in places that are too far to walk to; they “take care” of orphans for a couple of weeks, let the kids get attached to them, and then leave forever; they build buildings where buildings are not necessary or useful–and use up local resources doing it!



And then there’s my favourite aspect of the whole thing, Culture! As someone who has lived abroad, let me tell you, whenever you are out of your element, you are going to be a rude, bumbling mess of a person. Voluntourists can very easily stumble into cultural taboos about dress or sexuality or gender roles or, like, agriculture. This could be relatively benign, like the “turning human poop into corn fertilizer in the Yucatan” example that just appeared on the blog (where the locals will “just” think you’re a bunch of horribly disgusting people), or it could be that one of the white folks doesn’t understand local consent practices and ends up sexually assaulting someone (I haven’t heard any stories of this happening, but honestly, I’d be shocked if it hasn’t).



This last problem of Culture is actually the most difficult, which is why good, responsible aid organizations like Doctors and Engineers Without Borders hire Anthropologists. And also why Anthropologists exist in the first place, because, y’know, the British Colonial Authority needed to figure out how to do development projects too…just with different goals.



I hope that clears things up for you or anyone else who wanted the rundown on voluntourism!

–Peter