Dear Students,
I know you’re reading. I know that some of you have instructors who make you comment on aid blogs as part of your class work. And so I’m doing a short series of posts just for you. I’m going to take this opportunity to share with you some of the things that no one ever told me in grad school. This is Part 2.
(Part 1)
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I meet many people who think of humanitarian work as a “calling.” Maybe they’re called by God. Maybe they feel guilty for having been born into wealth. Maybe they want to “give something back.” Very often they see the life of a humanitarian as a series of sacrifices that they somehow feel compelled to make.
I’ll be very direct: I find this logic quite troubling. First, in my experience, these are the ones least likely to be honest about their other motivations (adventure, deep conversations with refugees, etc.). Second, they’re typically the least open to the conversation about what “good aid” is. Why? Because to them this is all (or at least primarily) about them and their sacrifices.
In its’ basic form, sacrifice is making a trade-off: You sacrifice this in order to get that. You love Big Macs, but don’t eat them – you sacrifice – in order to stay in shape.
But sacrifice is also much more than simple trade-off. The language of “sacrifice” or “calling” imply moral high ground. Ascetics are called live lives of chastity, poverty and obedience – they sacrifice – in order to secure a better afterlife. Parents remind their grown children of sacrifices made in years past in the attempt to avoid nursing homes. For all of its’ apparent virtue, in human relationships “sacrifice” very often boils down to attempts at control and manipulation. Making sacrifices is a way to accrue social capital. In the humanitarian world it often looks like this:
“I would have been totally justified in staying here in suburbia and living a comfortable life, but I’m making the sacrifice of moving to Costa Rica where things are tougher, just so that I can help the poor and make the world better.”
Making the humanitarian sacrifice makes you better than those who do not. They’re staying home and getting rich off of other people’s misery; You’re taking a low salary (or maybe no salary) and living a life of deprivation for the greater good. Using the language of sacrifice to describe aid work implies that you are somehow entitled to something from those who did not make similar sacrifices. Maybe respect. Maybe appreciation. Maybe a raise. Maybe a break on your check-in luggage fees.
And I can think of few things that are more detrimental than thinking of humanitarian aid work as a “sacrifice.” Few things set the tone for an imbalanced power dynamic between you and “the poor” you say you want to help; few things are more bald attempts at manipulation of your donors and constituents and even colleagues than thinking of your work as a sacrifice.
Further, few things will set you up for disillusionment and burn-out and bitterness in the future. If humanitarian work is choice you’re making out of a sense of “being called” to “sacrifice”, one day you will regret that choice.
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You can’t have everything. Making tough choices between two or more things that you really want is simply the reality of being an adult.
I like the way that Meg describes the thought processes around her choice to stay in Battambang.
I may have made a different choice myself, but there’s an honesty in her description of thinking through exactly what she wants to spend her days doing (not “wearing heels”, apparently :) ). And if I were to give you all, dear students, advice on this point it would be to do as Meg has done (although I don’t mean move to Battambang, necessarily):
Make your decision to pursue humanitarian work based on what you actually want to do. As in, what kinds of activities do you actually want to spend your days doing?
Understand that you cannot have it all, and not because humanitarian work equals a life of deprivation, but because this is simply the way that life is. You most likely not be able to have a humanitarian career and also park a Ferrari in the garage of your summer home in the Hamptons. You have to choose one. Make the most informed choice you can. And understand that it is, in fact, a choice, not a sacrifice. Let this be your response to the disdainful critics and the doe-eyed enthusiasts alike.
I just finished grading a stack of essays about ‘voluntourism’ and it struck me that, indeed, there might be such a thing as “service chic,” in which you become both more fashionable and more righteous than those who do not do service work. Your post nails the concept more thoroughly than I had as of yet. Thank you!
You are right on the nose when you talk about people who frame their career choice in this way and who make such work “about them and their sacrifices.” To me this seems to be very anthesis of a “calling,” especially if the idea has its roots in religion.
Service is a priviledge. A calling to serve must go hand in hand with humility. From this perspective, implied claims of moral high ground are entirely inappropriate. I think that only those who are not honest about their motivation will find themselves framing their sacrifices in this way because they are the ones who tell themselves they are entirely benevolent and thus their sacrifices are totally deserving of credit and recognition. Whereas if one is honest that one’s motivations consist of a wide range of preferences then one likely better understands that sacrifices made are simply a result of career choice (as there would be with any career choice) and any sense of doing the work you were called to is a benefit of your chosen career.
so on the nose, students listen to this carefully, choose wisely, this will BE your life, so make sure you are making the choice for the right reasons
Oh Students;
There are many reasons to go into development work. It is a growth industry and you will have a job as long as you want one. There are a lot of poor people and you can be absolutely certain that in every population half of them will be below average. They need you.
Two things to remember.
First. Too often you can equate your development work with putting your hand in a bucket of water. The long term effects of your work are usually equal to the impression your hand leaves in that bucket of water after you take it out.
Second. When you become a seasoned air traveler you will hear many times in many languages “in the event of a loss of cabin pressure oxygen masks will fall from the ceiling. Please put on your own oxygen mask before trying to assist others”.
There is no net benefit to the world if the aid workers suffers like the aid recipient. If you want to live poor join the Peace Corps. You will make friends, see the world from a very different POV, and set yourself up for a career growth path and fine expat life style when you eventually get your Masters and go to work for an agency.
And it is a great lifestyle especially after you move up to management and get that fine villa with staff and the workshops and training trips all over world. Its been very, very good for me.
J, I’ve been thinking about this – are you saying that there is something wrong with the notion of a ‘calling’ in general, or just in relation to aid/development work?
Could it not be said that doctors (some of), lawyers (some of), paramedics, social workers etc might be motivated by a moral sense of trying to make the world better rather than trying to make themselves rich? Indeed, would anyone seriously consider social work as a career if they were in it for the money?
I’m sorry if this comment sends you to drink, but I’m not really convinced of your position.
That said, I don’t know many aid workers so I’m really talking about the philosophy rather than the practice.
Joe, if I may reply as a humanitarian worker who used to be a social worker. The fundamental difference between the two, and likely doctor/lawyer, is that humanitarian workers commit to a life. You move with your job and so your lifestyle changes dramatically. Often living in places that are difficult, that are remote, that don’t have the same standards of living that you’re used to. That’s where the notion of ‘sacrifice’ comes in.
Personally, I do feel that I sacrifice for the opportunity to work in a field that I love. But it’s a by-product, not a driver. But as J says, that’s just the way life is. We all make sacrifices and trade offs for our careers.
I think that you’re entirely right when you say, that people can “motivated by a moral sense of trying to make the world better”, so long as you don’t really believe that you’re going to do that alone! I don’t believe that I make a huge difference but I’m motivated knowing that I can serve a few people, that I can be of some use and hopefully, not do any harm in the process.