“SHE CAN GET A VISA”: How Nationality and Class Shape Decision Making at a Kenyan NGO

Abstract

Prior studies show how race, class, and gender matter for worker identities within organizations, but there is an opportunity to focus on worker nationality and class background within nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Using evidence from ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and organizational documents at a small NGO in Kenya, I show how nationality and class mediate how NGO workers assign and accomplish organizational tasks. My results suggest that a process of elastic transnational stratification determines how nationality and class distribute tasks and decision-making power in relation to the location and organizational domain in which they must act. While both nationality and class are used as proxies for one’s proximity to power and influence, there are instances where less privileged identities are more strategic to deploy. Nationality and class shape access to various development spaces, the amount and type of resources one can attain on behalf of the organization, and legitimacy locally and at the global level.