Scholarship on invisible work highlights how volunteers’ labour is devalued and obfuscated because it is framed as something ‘noneconomic’. This article shows how volunteers’ labour is invisible and noneconomic when it is reframed as aid. Drawing upon a case of refugee volunteers in Jordan’s humanitarian aid sector highlights how framing work as aid transforms their labour into objects they ‘receive’ and ‘consume’ as benefits because ‘work’ is understood as something they lack or need. Volunteers are therefore both workers and beneficiaries in relation to aid organisations. This ambiguous positioning distinguishes them and what they do in the workplace from ‘work’. This case elaborates understandings of processes that delineate volunteer labour as invisible work in practice, and provides a starting point for further discussion on the relationship between invisible and insecure work. It also expands empirical knowledge on volunteering and invisible work within the Global South.

关于隐形工作的学术研究强调了志愿者的劳动是如何被贬低和混淆的，因为它被视为“非经济”的东西。本文展示了志愿者的劳动在被重新定义为援助时是如何无形和不经济的。借鉴约旦人道主义援助部门的难民志愿者案例，强调了将工作视为援助如何将他们的劳动转化为他们作为福利“接受”和“消费”的物品，因为“工作”被理解为他们缺乏或需要的东西。因此，志愿者既是援助组织的工人，也是受益者。这种模棱两可的定位使他们和他们的工作区分开来在“工作”的工作场所。该案例阐述了对实践中将志愿劳动描绘为无形工作的过程的理解，并为进一步讨论无形工作与不安全工作之间的关系提供了一个起点。它还扩展了全球南方关于志愿服务和无形工作的经验知识。