This rich ethnography of a Christian faith-based organisation working with irregular migrants in Morocco provides new insights into the ways in which such organisations both move through and simultaneously shape transnational, religious, and humanitarian spaces. May Ngos work insightfully highlights the importance of local faith communities in contemporary humanitarian and development contexts, while also contributing to broader conversations on contemporary reconfigurations of both religion and humanitarianism through their contextualised interactions.
R. Michael Feener, Sultan of Oman Fellow, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, University of Oxford, UK
This is a wonderfully detailed and nuanced book which, in the best tradition of ethnography, casts new light on the world of faith-based organisations. Focusing on a specific Protestant organisation and the work it carries out among irregular migrants in Morocco, May Ngo examines the ways in which precariousness and aporia are inscribed into the lives of humanitarians and migrants alike. This is a deeply compassionate and insightful account into some of the biggest ethical challenges facing the world today.
Philip Fountain, Senior Lecturer, School of Art History, Classics and Religious Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Between Humanitarianism and Evangelism in Faith-based Organisations
Religion has always played an important, if often contested, role in the public domain. This book focuses on how faith-based organisations (FBOs) interact with the public sphere, showing how faith-based actors are themselves shaped by wider processes and global forces such as globalisation, migration, foreign policy and neoliberal markets.
Focusing on a case study of an FBO in Morocco which gives aid to sub-Saharan African irregular migrants, the book reveals some of the challenges the organisation faces as it tries to negotiate at once local, national and international contexts through their particular Christian values. This book contends that the contradictions, tensions and ambiguities that arise are primarily a result of the organisation having to negotiate a normative global secular liberalism which requires a strict demarcation between religion and politics, and religion and the secular. Faith-based actors, particularly within humanitarianism, have to constantly navigate this divide and in examining the question of how religious values translate into humanitarian and development practices, categories such as religion, the secular and politics and the boundaries between them will need to be interrogated.
This book explores the diversity and complexity of the work of FBOs and will be of great interest to students and researchers working at the intersections of humanitarianism and development studies, politics and religion.
May Ngo is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
Routledge Research in Religion and Development
The Routledge Research in Religion and Development series focuses on the diverse ways in which religious values, teachings and practices interact with international development.
While religious traditions and faith-based movements have long served as forces for social innovation, it has only been within the last ten years that researchers have begun to seriously explore the religious dimensions of international development. However, recognising and analysing the role of religion in the development domain is vital for a nuanced understanding of this field. This interdisciplinary series examines the intersection between these two areas, focusing on a range of contexts and religious traditions.
Series Editors:
Matthew Clarke, Deakin University, Australia
Emma Tomalin, University of Leeds, UK
Nathan Loewen, Vanier College, Canada
Editorial board:
Carole Rakodi, University of Birmingham, UK
Gurharpal Singh, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK
Jrg Haustein, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK
Christopher Duncanson-Hales, Saint Paul University, Canada
Religion, Heritage and the Sustainable City
Hinduism and Urbanization in Jaipur
Yamini Narayanan
Religion and Urbanism
Reconceptualising Sustainable Cities for South Asia
Yamini Narayanan
Religions and Development in Asia
Sacred Places as Development Spaces
Matthew Clarke and Anna Halahoff
Between Humanitarianism and Evangelism in Faith-based Organisations
A Case from the African Migration Route
May Ngo
Between Humanitarianism and Evangelism in Faith-based Organisations
A Case from the African Migration Route
May Ngo
First published 2018
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2018 May Ngo
The right of May Ngo to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ngo, May, author.
Title: Between humanitarianism and evangelism in faith-based organisations : a case from the African migration route / May Ngo.
Other titles: Routledge research in religion and development.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2018. | Series: Routledge research in religion and development | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017048594 | ISBN 9781138674172 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Faith-based human services--Morocco. | Church and social problems--Morocco. | Humanitarianism--Religious aspects--Christianity. | Immigrants--Services for--Morocco. | Immigrants--Africa, Sub-Saharan. | Morocco--Emigration and immigration. | Eglise evanglique au Maroc. | Eglise evanglique au Maroc. Comit dentraide internationale.
Classification: LCC HN39.M8 N56 2018 | DDC 361.750964--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017048594
ISBN: 978-1-138-67417-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-56147-9 (ebk)
For my brother
I would like to acknowledge and thank the support of the Asia Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore, where I did most of the writing of this manuscript during my time there as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. I would also like to thank Philip Fountain and Michael Feener for their responses to the draft manuscript, and to Till Mostowlansky for kindly reading the whole manuscript.
