Abstract

Abstract: This paper addresses legacies of national origin within global forms. Focusing on tensions related to human resources, I consider the case ofthe humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors Without Borders). Since 1971, MSF has grown into a large, transnational NGO sponsoring a variety of medical projects worldwide. Amid recent efforts to “decolonize” its human profile, MSF has debated the appropriate role, motivation and remuneration of both international volunteers and local support staff it hires at mission sites. Given the range of routes situated persons must travel to achieve mobility, the organization’s conflicting impulses place it in a classic double bind: to remain mobile it must limit local attachments, while to achieve equality it must embrace them. The figure of the expatriate thus suggests a mundane measure for the threshold of inequality.