Who Needs the Experts? The Politics and Practices of Alternative Humanitarianism and Its Relationship to NGOs

Armine Ishkanian,Isabel Shutes

doi:10.1007/s11266-021-00354-6

Abstract

Drawing on fieldwork in Greece, we examine the politics and practices of autonomous volunteering in the context of the migration crisis. This involves individuals engaging in activities to support migrants through non-registered, self-organized and self-governed groups that work independent from and in some cases, even in opposition to NGOs. We consider autonomous volunteering as a form of collective action and argue that it constitutes an alternative humanitarianism. While recent literature has sought to identify the rise of emergent practices of alternative humanitarianism in Europe, research has often overlooked how autonomous volunteers distinguish themselves from, relate to and collaborate with NGOs and conversely, how NGOs view and engage with them. We found that despite their critiques of NGOs and their determination to work independently, there were instances of cooperation between autonomous volunteers and NGOs. These interactions did not become substantive alliances, as the work of NGOs and autonomous volunteers continued to be disconnected from each other.

Highlights

Since the 1990s, Greece has been both a transit and destination country for migrants (Stevens, 2018), but when 850,000 people entered Greece in 2015, the situation was termed a ‘‘refugee crisis’’ (European Commission, 2017) and a ‘‘global humanitarian crisis’’ (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2014)
In-depth interviews were carried out with 28 individuals including, nine representatives working for international non-governmental organizations (NGOs); four representatives working for domestic NGOs; eight international volunteers who had traveled to Greece from countries in Europe and North America during or after 2015; five Greek solidarians, and two interviews with people working within United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) operations in Greece and the Reception and Identification Service operated by the Greek government
We examined the politics and practices of autonomous volunteers (AVs) in the migration crisis in Greece who work outside of, in parallel to, and at times in opposition to professional NGOs

Summary

Introduction

Since the 1990s, Greece has been both a transit and destination country for migrants (Stevens, 2018), but when 850,000 people entered Greece in 2015, the situation was termed a ‘‘refugee crisis’’ (European Commission, 2017) and a ‘‘global humanitarian crisis’’ (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2014). We examine the politics and practice of alt- humanitarianism in the context of the migration crisis, with regard to the perceptions and experiences of different types of AVs as well as those working within national and INGOs operating in Greece The former includes two types of AVs (Greek solidarians and international volunteers, coming to Greece from other European and North American countries). With reference to the identities and principles referred to by AVs in our research, the aim in this article is to not to assume that all actors are driven by a sense of solidarity, but rather to examine whether and how informal actors viewed their work as a form of solidarity, and how understandings of solidarity shaped their assistance to migrants and engagement with NGOs. we consider how AVs defined themselves and their actions in relation to alternative principles

Methods

Conclusion