Description
The critical literature on NGOs operating on migration has often interrogated its implication in systems of humanitarian-industrial complex; state surveillance; neoliberal governmentality. We propose another view, informed by a political economy perspective, which reveals the implication in broader systems of racial capitalism and, particularly, the management of relative surplus populations. We illustrate this point by exploring the ambiguous role that NGOs, both grassroots and large, serve in supporting people in hotspots in Greece. We show how NGOs, consciously or unconsciously, participate in secondary exploitation of displaced people through voluntary roles. We discuss how different forms of existence of RSP are present in the sector, with racialised hierarchies between different groups of volunteers. We conclude by exploring the political dilemmas generated by this situation in regard to the practice of NGOs, resistance and the possibility of alternative forms of solidarity.
