The “southernization” of the international aid sector. Does it provide an opportunity for emancipation or displace relations of domination?

For thirty years, international aid actors have sought to increase the involvement of the populations with whom they intervene in a push for “Southernization.” At Medecins sans frontieres (MSF), this has translated among other things into a diversification of the countries of origin of “expatriates.” Based on fifty-five interviews and participatory observation, this article examines the implicit stake of this “Southernization:” the emancipation from the North of individuals from the South. While MSF’s “Southernization” stems from a “Southernist” political will and from a growing need for “expatriates,” it seems that it has actually led to a temporary depoliticization of the organization, a shift in its strategic equilibrium, and to the emergence of new social stratification in the end.