A reflection on the broader, systemic impacts of youth volunteer abroad programmes: a Canadian perspective

Abstract

Despite the increasing popularity and appeal of youth volunteer abroad (YVA) programmes, powerful critiques are emerging. While these programmes tend to promise much in the way of global ethics and global citizenship in youth participants, they often neglect to seriously interrogate the one-way movement of people from the centre to the periphery and valorize the knowledge and perspectives of the host communities. These programmes, especially those not geared toward social justice and facilitating youth through the struggles and aftermath of experiential and transformative education, have the potential to perpetuate the same neo-colonial practices they seek to overcome. This article examines the benefits, context and history of YVA in Canada, analyses them under a post-colonial theoretical framework, discusses the gaps between theory and practice and proposes alternative ways that researchers, practitioners and policy-makers can redress the colonial implications of YVA programmes.