Paper Example on Voluntourism and Neo-Colonialism: Unveiling Impacts, Characteristics, and Reforms

Introduction

Neocolonialism involves the indirect control of African nations' political, economic, and socio-cultural lives by the former colonial masters after independence. It is through the indirect form of control that neo-colonialism is manifested in the African states. Over the years, neoliberalism has been manifested in several domains, including various systems like military takeovers, the uneven balance of trade, and the quality of education(Gilley, 2018). It is a worse system than colonialism as it operates indirectly in the shadows. Its impact is visible and has negative consequences on the African states as it has hindered socio-economic development.

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On the other hand, Voluntourism refers to a form of tourism where travelers tend to participate in voluntary work for charity purposes. When people take a vacation, for example, high school students or church groups, and try to help a community, for instance, through evangelization. It is a short-term trip where an individual spends time outside the country while paying and participating in an external organized project. Therefore basically focusing on feeling good work with long-term consequences that the visiting groups are not accountable. The actions under voluntarism tend to be shorter solutions that fail to focus on systematic issues that tend to be a plaque in various societies. For example, a volunteer activity to clean an orphanage may be perceived to be good, but it directly harms the communities since the tourists take away the jobs that could have been performed by the locals. Voluntourism entices people from developed nations to spend time in poorer countries. The organization tends to benefit from the systems and therefore reproduce a form of neo-colonialism.

Ways Voluntourism Might be Considered as a form of Neo-Colonialism

Voluntourism tends to promote neo-colonialism in various ways. For instance, volunteering projects tend to be organized by many agencies in the world and have been accused of being a form of neo-colonialism. The organizations belong to industrial nations that tend to enrich themselves on the back of developing countries. Voluntourism generates neo-colonial structures considered to induce dependencies and vulnerabilities to people. International volunteering companies polarize between helpless citizens and volunteers while advertising their existing volunteering programs. They consider the volunteers as caregivers as the local citizens are stigmatized as passive receivers. The binary view results in disparities by promoting stereotypes and various thought patterns, especially in circumstances where the volunteers do not have adequate qualifications, experience, and expertise in the assigned work. A perfect example relates to when a tourist inappropriately takes the teacher's role regardless of the experience. It represents a form of the neo-colonial construct of the Westerner as culturally and racially superior.

Commercial voluntarism is predominant in the modern day. According to Tomazoes 2018, it focuses on stimulating customers and satisfying their wishes and daily needs (Tomazos, 2018). Financial dependencies and existential vulnerabilities result from volunteering organizations only focusing on profits.

Structural inequality is evident in voluntourism encounters. For instance, volunteer tourism brings together economically powerful tourists who tend to have enough discretion for economic resources and can afford a trip abroad with less powerful host communities. The host communities are deemed poor to place the visitors in the position of being volunteered. As a result, it leads to an unequal relationship between the parties (Olivier, 2019). Also, inequality is evident from the conceptualizations of development so that something can be undertaken by non-skilled but enthusiastic volunteers that tend to legitimize the young unskilled Western labor as a development solution.

Actions and ideas of the West are undertaken with only themselves in mind, and so is globalization. With the increased commercial expansion, industrial capitalism, and dominance of core nations, the Westerners globalize the world as the cultures clash, and community values change and crumble. Cultural values and forms of economic production are lost to make a profit through volunteering programs by various organizations from developed nations.

The white man's burden is ethnocentric with the view of being superior as everyone below him suffers. Therefore, a white man's burden relates to the need to help and better the suffering individuals in different ways. As a result, volunteerism arises and expands to other countries, but the person benefiting is only the white man as the rich got powerful while the poor got poorer.

Voluntourists do more Harm than Good

Voluntourists always have good intentions, but the intent does not equal impact. Therefore, I agree that Voluntourism does more harm than good. For example, in the case of volunteers heading off for a few months searching for feel-good projects in various developing states, they tend to provide short-term relief and unskilled labor like visiting an orphanage to play games with the kids. The work has not addressed the critical issues of the kids; hence it is not necessary.

Projects tend to form a larger part of developing countries; there is a larger spectrum of motivation in participating in volunteer projects and for volunteers. The primary interest relates to personal development. Irrespective of the self-fulfillment and experiences and the impact it has on both parties, it is not an effective form of aid development since the negative impact outweighs the positive impact.

Effective Reforms to Avoid Neo-Colonialism Characteristics

Various reforms must be implemented for existing voluntourism programs to avoid neo-colonial characteristics. For instance, volunteer programs should be critically organized in a way that involves aiding and alleviating the material poverty of various groups in society and the restoration of the various environment. Volunteering should be likened to a tool for a grassroots form of development by involving people to work towards achieving a collective goal rather than being ruled by a single individual. Also, choosing a charity those partners with local workers is an effective reform. It ensures that jobs are not taken away from locals instead of being created and supported by volunteer projects.

Initiating a broader development program is a perfect reform for Voluntourism. The root of development requires instilling a new skill and understanding of people. To facilitate long-term impact, it is paramount to work with the local people, understand their culture, and find causes of underdevelopment in the countries before implementing any possible solutions. Voluntourism projects are considered short as volunteers participate in less than two months, making it difficult for the individuals to be effective due to insufficient time to find the cause of the problems and address them in the community. It thus requires a developmental worker working with volunteers to plan appropriate interventions like long-term delivery of their work. A structure that promotes continuity of skills transfer is essential by linking volunteer programs into larger projects within a long-term developmental program.

Positive Impact

Although voluntarism promotes neo-colonialism, it has a positive impact. For example, it stimulates local economies through trade, improves the well-being and livelihood of host communities, boosts community happiness, enhances cross-cultural understanding, reduces cultural and social boundaries, and enhances international development.

Conclusion

Voluntourism has become a popular form of altruistic travel as people voluntarily work while exploring developing countries. It is due to initiatives by various organizations that raise money for various programs that help vulnerable communities. However, it is considered a form of neo-colonialism as the organization focuses on commercial profits; there is structural inequality in the relationship and an ethnocentric view. Various reforms must be implemented to ensure various programs avoid neo-colonialism characteristics. For instance, it is implementing a long-term development program that is community-driven.

References

Gilley, B. (2018). The case for colonialism. Third World Quarterly, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2017.1369037

Olivier, B. (2019). Decolonization, Identity, Neo-Colonialism, and Power. Phronimon, 20. https://doi.org/10.25159/2413-3086/3065

Tomazos, K. (2018). The Commercialization of Voluntourism: Money vs. Mission. Tourism Recreation Research, 37(3), 271-272. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2012.11081718