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Paper short abstract

This paper examines how diaspora volunteers originating from the Global South leverage hybrid positionalities to navigate political complexities and co-create solutions with local communities as autonomous actors shaping development futures from within and beyond national borders

Paper long abstract

Diaspora volunteering exists in the ‘in-between spaces of development’ and represents a distinctive form of transnational engagement in which actors originating from the Global South, mobilize skills, resources, and networks to address development priorities in their countries of origin (Brinkerhoff, 2016). Thus, diaspora volunteers have the potential for a unique positionality that transcends donor-recipient and north-south relationships.

Drawing on qualitative case studies, this paper demonstrates how diaspora health volunteers leverage hybrid positionalities to navigate political complexities, build trust, and co-create solutions with local communities (Gamlen, 2014). Their embeddedness enables them to resist deficit-based narratives, operating through reciprocal relationships and transnational solidarity.

However, tensions persist when diaspora interventions are mediated through donor frameworks that reproduce Global North–centric development logics (Bakewell, 2009). This paper centres Global South leadership, mutual accountability, and structural transformation as key features of diaspora volunteering. This reframing positions diaspora volunteers as autonomous Global South actors shaping development futures from within and beyond national borders not as intermediaries for external agendas.