Drawing on fieldwork in Greece, we examine the politics and practices of autonomous volunteering in the context of the migration crisis. This involves individuals engaging in activities to support migrants through non-registered, self-organized and self-governed groups that work independent from and in some cases, even in opposition to NGOs. We consider autonomous volunteering as a form of collective action and argue that it constitutes an alternative humanitarianism. While recent literature has sought to identify the rise of emergent practices of alternative humanitarianism in Europe, research has often overlooked how autonomous volunteers distinguish themselves from, relate to and collaborate with NGOs and conversely, how NGOs view and engage with them. We found that despite their critiques of NGOs and their determination to work independently, there were instances of cooperation between autonomous volunteers and NGOs. These interactions did not become substantive alliances, as the work of NGOs and autonomous volunteers continued to be disconnected from each other.

借助希腊的实地考察，我们考察了移民危机中自主志愿服务的政治和实践。这涉及个人通过非注册，自组织和自治团体参与支持移民的活动，这些团体独立于某些情况甚至在反对NGO的情况下开展工作。我们认为自主志愿服务是集体行动的一种形式，并认为这构成了一种替代性的人道主义。尽管最近的文献试图确定欧洲出现替代性人道主义的新做法，但研究常常忽略了自主志愿人员如何与非政府组织区分开，与非政府组织联系和与之合作，反之，非政府组织如何看待非政府组织并与之互动。我们发现，尽管他们批评非政府组织并决心独立工作，但自愿志愿者与非政府组织之间还是存在合作的实例。这些互动并没有成为实质性的联盟，因为非政府组织和自主志愿人员的工作继续彼此脱节。