Through Participant’s Eyes: The “Messy” Realities of Intercultural Exchange Programmes - South Africans on their International Development Volunteer Service in Germany – an Interdisciplinary Participant-Centred Retrospective on weltwärts (and beyond)

Policy-based international educational and cultural exchanges continue to be a disciplinary diffuse and disconnected field of research (Kim, 2017), which lacks a concise and realistic understanding due to the neglect of perspectives of partners and participants from the Global South (Bergmann, 2020; De Haas et al., 2020; Glick Schiller & Faist, 2010). This is problematic, especially as new programmes in various forms are increasingly being launched without utilising its full potential, and reproducing unconsidered factors and their consequences (Deardorff, 2018; De Lima, 2007; Glick Schiller & Faist, 2010). This paper is therefore dedicated to the experiences of former South-North volunteers, who spent a year in Germany as part of the intercultural development volunteer service (IdVS), weltwärts. The focus lies on changes and influencing factors in the programme course and on uncovering previously neglected nuances to enhance our IdVS understanding. For this purpose, the experiences of South African weltwärts returnees are considered, collected in individual semi-structured interviews, and evaluated by qualitative content analysis based on Mayring. Building on general, context- and individual-specific ethical considerations and limitations: the research is guided by a theoretical framework centred on literature from migration, public policy, and intercultural studies, following authors such as Kim, De Haas, Deardorff, de Lima, Campbell, and others. The results of transcend disciplinary boundaries and show the need for consideration beyond policy framework, both in terms of timeline and content. The participant’s retrospective enables relevant factors to be identified both before, during and after programme completion, decisive for experience and outcome. Moreover, they illustrate the variety and nuances of changes that happen in the “messy” IdVS course. These reveal programme unintended, not always positive consequences and factors as indicated by Deardorff (2018). Therefore, attention must be paid continuously to the realities of participants, especially those from the underrepresented 'Global South', to close instead of deepening gaps and unfold the full potential of such programmes instead of reproducing shortcomings.