Fewer young people volunteering for long-term missions abroad

Catholic NGOs based in France are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit young adults who are willing to make a long-term commitment to serve abroad.

In 2012, there were 493 people who chose to volunteer for international solidarity with the DCC. By 2022, only 288 will have done so. (Photo by KASIA STREK/CIRIC)

The Catholic Delegation for Cooperation (DCC), the first international voluntary service to be set up in France, sent an email to its entire network at the end of June with an urgent appeal. It's looking for young adults who are willing to go on one of three long-term service missions the DCC is carrying out in the Holy Land beginning in September. 

Although these assignments have appealed to many young people in the past, they are currently not attracting any applicants. Is this an isolated case or indicative of a more global phenomenon of disengagement?

Whether it's the Œuvre d'Orient, the DCC, the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (MEP) or Fidesco (Fides-Co, Faith and Cooperation), most of these Catholic organizations that send volunteers abroad have made the same observation: this year, the number of applications is tending to drop off. For some, it's stagnation; for others, it's a marked decline.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the decline

For example, 493 people chose to volunteer for international solidarity with the DCC in 2012. But ten years later, only 288 ventured out on a long-term mission.

Guillaume Nicolas, general delegate of the DCC, said these figures reflect "a fundamental trend affecting most organizations". One of the main reasons for this is an evolution of the demands of young people concerning the missions they are ready to accept..

"Young people want to go away for a maximum of nine months (i.e. a school year), and are no longer prepared to go on longer assignments," he noted.

What's more, the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated the decline.

"Our major recruitment tool is undeniably word-of-mouth. But during the year of the pandemic, when no one left, there was a break in the transmission between the volunteers and those who should have succeeded them," observed Fra Nicolas Burle, director of Dom & Go, the international volunteer service for young people aged 20-30 run by the French Province of the Dominicans.

Questioning the relevance of going abroad to serve

While international humanitarian involvement reached a peak some twenty years ago, Florence Ihaddadene, a sociologist specializing in volunteer issues, said there's been change in times and mentality to explain the declining attractiveness of these far-flung missions today.

"Young people are questioning the relevance, in the midst of an ecological crisis, of going to the ends of the earth to get involved in crises over which they have no real control," she explained.

The researcher pointed to the younger generation's criticism of the "white savior complex". The term, which has emerged in recent years, describes an attitude that consists of going to an underprivileged country to ease one's conscience, but without having any real impact.

"The model of how to help others has changed," insisted Ihaddadene. She contends that it's the "end of (one-way) charity" and a move towards a "social and solidarity economy" that's more about "everyone wanting to learn something from each other".

Recent scandals in the humanitarian sector have also accentuated this phenomenon.

The drop in international volunteers seems to be accompanied by a consequent desire on the part of young French adults "to commit themselves first and foremost to France", explained Chloé Remigereau. As head of human resources at Le Rocher, an association that runs educational and social activities in the heart of housing estates, she has noted that a third of the young people who volunteer highlight the fact that "there's already a lot to do here before going abroad".

Developing new forms of volunteer service

Faced with this visible decline in long-term volunteering, which is not confined to Catholic organizations, associations are looking for ways to revitalize the sector. New forms of volunteer service are being organized to adapt to the situation. For instance, Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) has decided to train volunteers directly on site, preferring "to send locals rather than expatriates".

Catholic organizations like Œuvre d'Orient and DCC are have decided that, if the downturn continues over the long term, they will beginning looking for volunteers with specific skills such as doctors, nurses, teachers, agro-ecology project managers, and all those who could put their skills to immediate use in structures in need. This is a change of model that would tend towards professionalizing Catholic volunteer service organizations.