Althouse: Are you skeptical about "voluntourism"?

July 31, 2014

Are you skeptical about "voluntourism"?

"More than 1.6 million volunteer tourists are spending about $2 billion each year. But some people who work in the industry... question whether some trips help young adults pad their resumes or college applications more than they help those in need."

34 comments:

paul a'barge said...: If the volunteers are Christians, those touring would be called "Missionaries" and they would join the list of others who have been doing Christ's work for thousands of years.; 7/31/14, 4:18 PM
ddh said...: Yes, they do. Next question?; 7/31/14, 4:19 PM
Fandor said...: Voluntourism, mission trips or whatever you want to call them are ok. It's usually for a short duration and can help open up the eyes of young people to see how blessed they are to live in the United States. As to the help they provide, it's minimal, but gives them (the young folks) a puffed up feeling that they are really engaged in something grand. If they really want to do it right, go to a vocational school, learn how to do something practical and join the Peace Corp.; 7/31/14, 4:38 PM
Tari said...: I don't think orphans in the developing world need strangers who show up, shower them with attention for a few weeks, and then disappear. Children who don't trust others, or who trust indiscriminately, all because of abandonment and loss, suffer more than they ever benefit in such a situation. And yet trips like that happen all the time, both in the secular and church worlds.

If anyone wants to read about the issue of short-term missions from a Christian perspective, Tara Livesay has written a good piece that's worth the time: http://www.livesayhaiti.com/2011/03/thinking-through-stm.html. She and her family have lived and worked in Haiti for years.; 7/31/14, 4:51 PM
David said...: If they went for two years instead of two weeks I might be impressed.

Or if they went back to the same place year after year for decades. (It's what quite a few of those bigoted born again Christians do.); 7/31/14, 5:26 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I thought the point of a short term trip was to expand the horizons of the visitor in the hope that he will expand his generosity and vision for a meaningful life when he returns home.; 7/31/14, 5:49 PM
Unknown said...: I think it was Megan McArdle that asked why Hummer owners were viewed with disdain by the nomenklatura but airline passengers tend to be viewed as adventuresome and a part of that aware cohort always conscious of its CO2 footprint.; 7/31/14, 5:55 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Gee, ya think?; 7/31/14, 6:24 PM
Capt. Schmoe said...: In northern Mexico, it is common for mission/church/Christian School groups from the US to build a basic house over a weekend. They invest six grand or so, show up on Fri and finish up on Sun night. The end result is a 16'X 24' three room house with no electricity or running water.

While it does not sound like much, the shelter is far better than the hovels made from discarded American garage doors that they usually replace.

I submit that these small homes make a deep and lasting impact- voluntourism or not.; 7/31/14, 6:34 PM
Sydney said...: I've always been skeptical of those short term mission trips. Going somewhere for a couple of weeks to provide some needed short term labor, like building a house or a school is probably OK. Or going somewhere to provide plastic surgery every three months. But providing two weeks of rotating volunteers to teach or provide basic medical care just doesn't seem adequate. To do a good job in that kind of position you need to become a part of the community and culture, and that takes more than a couple of weeks.; 7/31/14, 6:34 PM
CatherineM said...: Right David. I was just saying that in another post about the generosity of those boogeyman Christians in my other post about what we could be doing for these children on the border. We can handle this if we could handle boat people in the 70s and other refugees since. We choose politics instead.; 7/31/14, 6:49 PM
traditionalguy said...: Church mission trips do good +free labor building a school building or church building on 3 week trips. And such a cultural eye opener must be good for the upper middle class young adults and teens.

But the pride they take in announcing their planned trips and
later bragging about their completed trips seems odd. It's like they
become a special class of people.; 7/31/14, 6:52 PM
CatherineM said...: Most of this is rich kids. Sorry, but all the rich people I work with start sending their kids to build huts in Costa Rica or Botswana for a week or starting in 10th grade because it looks good on their transcripts. They also "volunteer" to read with the "under privileged" after school.

It seems nice until u meet the kids and they are spoiled assholes who need to learn how to work with others. Instead their parents got them their volunteer bull as well as any "summer job" that could have gone to someone more deserving. I see it a million times in Manhattan.; 7/31/14, 6:56 PM
retired said...: Its from NPR, pack of ossified liars.; 7/31/14, 7:01 PM
mccullough said...: The one guy who just finished college in San Francisco majored in entrepreneurism and went because he didn't have a job. I don't think he understand what entrepreneurism is.; 7/31/14, 7:07 PM
Michael K said...: My daughter spent several summers in Ecuador doing work on an archeological dig at 14,000 feet. That was worth while. The other stuff is phony.

When my oldest son was applying to college they wanted an essay on his most significant experience, or some such. I suggested he write about sailing to Hawaii with me when he was 16. His counselor was annoyed and asked him if he even wanted to go to college. He wanted one of these phony volunteer things.; 7/31/14, 7:32 PM
JRoberts said...: Voluntourism is nothing like the important work environmentaltourists do when they charter an icebreaker to take them to the north or south pole. This allows them feel important as they watch the ice shelf shrink because of all the wealthy environmentaltourists.; 7/31/14, 7:33 PM
Skipper said...: I still wonder what actual good the Peace Corps has done in its 50+ years. How many times do young do-gooders have to teach 3rd world farmers how to properly plant a crop, or construct a school building in the same vicinity? This is institutionalized poverty tourism at its worst.; 7/31/14, 7:51 PM
Cheryl said...: Tari--that link was a very good article. We have hesitated to go on a mission trip for just the reasons she lays out. As a matter of fact, we are going to Dominican Reoublic with the author of the book Tara referenced. We are going only to meet people already involved with Esperenza and Hope Intl., not to build anything or convert anyone.

I think the voluntourism movement is okay for the people who go, in general, but if it's damaging to the people being "helped," is it worthwhile?; 7/31/14, 7:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Gotta link to Louis CK on this.

The part that is relevant to voluntourism starts about @2:30, but the lead up is worthwhile as well.; 7/31/14, 7:57 PM
Michael said...: Actually, I'd go with "white guilt tourism." But it's probably not a bad thing. Usually it's a church group, and there's a continuing organization that manages the projects and plugs the various groups in and out over time. The primary benefit to the program is the money it charges the groups to participate, while the benefits to the people who go are probably real. Stuff does get built that people in (wherever) need. One does wonder, however.; 7/31/14, 8:13 PM
Tari said...: I (selfishly) wish these kinds of trips were helpful, because I'd like to go on a few. But I have no needed skills, so I can't imagine I would do more good than harm. I think the short-term trips that work best are when people with needed talents go - doctors, dentists, carpenters, engineers, etc. We donate to a charity based here in Houston that takes people on water well drilling trips - which is great in an oil and gas town, where many of the volunteers are mechanical and petroleum engineers. They don't do a bad job drilling a water well, especially when they have a team leader who does this year-round. I don't think anyone wants me scrawny, middle-aged self drilling wells, however.; 7/31/14, 9:59 PM
Anonymous said...: "...question whether some trips help young adults pad their resumes or college applications more..."

Helps rich young adults to get to elite schools. The not so rich ones have to take wage paying jobs to pay for their college and lower the bites of their student loans.; 7/31/14, 10:26 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Great Louis CK link.

He's so hostile!; 7/31/14, 11:08 PM
ganderson said...: Do not count out the "meet girls/boys" reason.; 8/1/14, 5:11 AM
George M. Spencer said...: Tells you something about the state of the economy. Can't find a job in the US? Can't find a job overseas? Go be a migrant laborer in Central America...for free!

And it's funny how church trips never go to the slums of the town next door. I suppose that would embarrass the poor people who are your neighbors and really weird out the church kids.; 8/1/14, 5:22 AM
Unknown said...: I'm a little astounded at the negative comments. (Unless I am totally mistaken) volunteers are not given a backpack and a map and sent off to conquer the wilderness. They work with organizations in place who have an established work. They are free labor for work in progress (although there is some cost of effort to the work for organizing and supervising). If the work being supported is worthwhile and the contribution of the volunteers is useful, then what's the down side? Some of the volunteers get a sense that they have contributed?; 8/1/14, 9:44 AM
Sam L. said...: Question? Should it not be Obvious?; 8/1/14, 10:16 AM
Balfegor said...: I'm a little astounded at the negative comments. (Unless I am totally mistaken) volunteers are not given a backpack and a map and sent off to conquer the wilderness. They work with organizations in place who have an established work. They are free labor for work in progress (although there is some cost of effort to the work for organizing and supervising). If the work being supported is worthwhile and the contribution of the volunteers is useful, then what's the down side?

I think the negativity is because it is doubtful whether the work is worthwhile and the contribution valuable. Much of this "work" is just resume padding for posh young people (racking up exotic volunteer points is a lot easier than doing well in school if you're rich and a bit of a thickie, so obviously exotic volunteer points has to count the most), so it's not actually worthwhile or helpful to the people who are supposed to be the beneficiaries -- one suspects that a lot of it is just theatrical makework. And it soaks up resources and diverts public attention from efforts that would actually be helpful.; 8/1/14, 12:49 PM
Crunchy Frog said...: Just this year alone, my church (in Santa Clarita, just north of Los Angeles) has sent missionaries to Guatemala, Morocco, India, the Central African Republic, Globe AZ (San Carlos Apache reservation), and the current one in Visalia CA where my son is building houses with his college age group. The AZ trip was comprised of 60 high schoolers with adult chaperones, where they also built housing and spread the love of Jesus.

Nobody involved in any of these activities did so for the purpose of padding a resume.

Oh, and by the way, we also support our local food bank and have a rotating group of people who go downtown to the Union Rescue Mission daily.

No, we don't take out full page ads trumpeting our good deeds. For one thing, it would be a waste of money better spent elsewhere, and that's not how Christians are supposed to roll anyway. See Matthew 6:5 and following.; 8/1/14, 2:28 PM
MDIJim said...: These are high school and college kids who have no practical skills. Are there no poor Mexicans with enough skill to build a basic 16'X24' house without utilities? How much would it cost to hire them to build the house? It would probably cost a lot less than what it costs to fly a suburban teenager down there and house them for a week.

On the other hand, one of the Americans fighting Ebola in West Africa who has come down with that dread disease works at a hospital funded and staffed by evangelical Christians whose beliefs and politics I would probably find abhorrent.

Its like with Mormons and Utah. Look at the social and health statistics and you will probably find no better place in the US to raise kids. But would you want them to live amongst believers in a religion as wacky as Mormonism?; 8/1/14, 4:12 PM
MDIJim said...: These are high school and college kids who have no practical skills. Are there no poor Mexicans with enough skill to build a basic 16'X24' house without utilities? How much would it cost to hire them to build the house? It would probably cost a lot less than what it costs to fly a suburban teenager down there and house them for a week.

On the other hand, one of the Americans fighting Ebola in West Africa who has come down with that dread disease works at a hospital funded and staffed by evangelical Christians whose beliefs and politics I would probably find abhorrent.

Its like with Mormons and Utah. Look at the social and health statistics and you will probably find no better place in the US to raise kids. But would you want them to live amongst believers in a religion as wacky as Mormonism?; 8/1/14, 4:13 PM
Rockport Conservative said...: My granddaughter went on a medical mission trip to Kenya. She is not rich but has been raised with a very good homeschooled education until middle school. She is a pre med senior in university this year. I think the African trip was a real eye opener for her.
I do believe that kids who come to some of the cities in the US are interesting. They work with the poor repairing houses and I always wonder, "what about their towns, their cities, surely there are many there who need there help."; 8/1/14, 6:34 PM
John Cunningham said...: Cockayne slimes religious people--

On the other hand, one of the Americans fighting Ebola in West Africa who has come down with that dread disease works at a hospital funded and staffed by evangelical Christians whose beliefs and politics I would probably find abhorrent.

Its like with Mormons and Utah. Look at the social and health statistics and you will probably find no better place in the US to raise kids. But would you want them to live amongst believers in a religion as wacky as Mormonism?

so how come the American Atheist Assn never sends anyone to do medical or relief work anywhere? could it be because they are Lefty scrotes who never do anything but sit on their butts complaining?; 8/1/14, 7:03 PM