Dismantling the "White Saviour Complex" While Volunteering Abroad
The White Saviour Complex (WSC) starts with the idea that you, as a white person, often with a good education and enough capital to live abroad, can and should be the person to be going into foreign countries and helping with domestic issues, such as poor education, lack of infrastructure, inadequate health services, and more broadly – poverty. The WSC is sometimes overt, and oftentimes hidden behind unexamined good intentions, but it relies on unequal power balances, along with faulty narratives of race relations and misguided perspectives of international “development.” Problems from the WSC emerge when this help actually causes harm to communities, is done without cultural awareness and humility, perpetuates narratives of these communities needing “saving,” and imposes change or progress that is not in line with what the local community wants or needs. It’s a complicated, pervasive, and pernicious attitude that has been coupled with the international development field of work for too long. So, how can you begin to undo it or, at the very least, mitigate its harm? How do you avoid thinking and acting like a White Saviour if you want to work abroad? Here is a short list, by no means meant to be comprehensive, of some actions you can start taking:
1. Recognize the difference between intent and impact.
No doubt you have a true desire to help and to make the world a better place, but having good intentions before going into a foreign country to work does not eliminate the risk of having a negative impact. It is not enough to just say that you meant well; you have to actively be monitoring and processing how your actions are influencing people and situations and try to humbly modify any harmful behaviour. Part of this is being open to listening and acknowledging that sometimes that feedback will be silent – if you are not hearing feedback, are you making space for it? Are you speaking over those who would want to say something? Have you failed to make yourself an approachable person to feedback, with a demonstrated willingness to change? Your good intentions are only part of the picture. If you really want to be successful, you need to pay attention to the actual impact you are having on your work environment, the communities you are in, and the culture around you as a whole.
2. Understand the culpability of your own country on the present issues of the country you are working in.
This is unlikely to be something you were taught in your own educational journey as a child and may not have been something you looked into before, but it is absolutely crucial in helping to situate you and to understand influences that have contributed to the state things are in. Instead of framing a country as “developing,” you can ask yourself – what kinds of exploitation of this country have impaired its advancement? US military interventions, Canadian companies doing mineral extraction with toxic mining practices, exploitative lending from big groups like the World Bank or IMF, or European colonization are common issues that might have affected the ability for the country you are working in to be flourishing economically. Understanding that history will give you a better perspective on present day issues and help you to position yourself and your country’s “development” in relation to others.
3. Examine the depictions of the country you are sharing.
You should not be posting pictures of anyone without their consent (especially not any vulnerable people). Additionally, try to avoid posting photos that depict poverty without dignity. A house in poor repair, a street with overflowing garbage, or broken down infrastructure often help to maintain ideas that people who have not visited the country may have about poverty and desperation, without seeing the beauty and honour of the country. There are surely many beautiful things about the country you are living in; why not share those things with people who have not been lucky enough to spend the time you will living there?
4. Remember that just because someone else sees you as a saviour does not justify it.
You may be in the position where your friends, your employers, and even the communities you serve do in fact see you as something of a saviour. It is very possible that the people you work with will have elevated opinions of foreigners, especially white North Americans and Europeans, due to their own colonialized education and the idealized images of so-called “developed” countries that they have been fed. If you notice that others are valuing your opinion with undue weight or deferring to your authority on issues and in debates, you should be pushing back on this and not taking advantage of it. There are deep-running power structures that have been built to benefit you, and you need to be aware of them and actively work against them in order to not be complicit. This will go against what feels comfortable and against what would easily fall into place if you do not make the effort to actively resist it. Remember that, while you bring in your own skills and perspectives, those who you are working with have intimate knowledge of their own country and culture, along with their own skills and experiences that you need to be respecting, learning from, and integrating into your approach.
5. Acknowledge that this is a lifelong process.
It’s never too late to start! However, the work will also never be fully done. As white people working abroad, it is important to continue to be reflective of what we are doing, listen to new voices, read new perspectives, and constantly challenge ourselves to be better. You will make mistakes, and you might look back on things you have done and cringe, but you can always apologize and then keep working to be better next time. This work will be exhausting, frustrating, make you realize uncomfortable things about yourself and your own background, and require lots of humility and open-mindedness, but it will be the most important part of your job and your life’s work.
About the Author: Jill Clairo, MPhil
Born and raised amongst the mountains of Western Canada, Jill received her Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, where she researched sexual health approaches in the Dominican Republic, focusing on how to engage young men in issues of teen pregnancy and gender equality. Her previous research at Mount Allison University similarly looked at masculinity and young men, examining the stigma around mental health issues for young college athletes. She has a passion for gender equality and reproductive rights, along with experience working in schools in Vietnam, France, Spain, the United States, Canada and the Dominican Republic (DR).
Jill is inspired by radical pedagogies, along with anti-racist, feminist and decolonizing approaches to education that create healthy and constructive environments for all students and families involved. With a genuine belief that education is a crucial player in societal growth, psychological fulfillment and personal development, she was thrilled to be a part of the DREAM Team teaching English with A Ganar and conducting program analysis. She is currently back in Canada focusing on education and disabilities and missing the warm beaches and smiles of the DR!