Volunteering by Migrants: One Step toward Social Inclusion

Increased migration – by choice or by force – throughout Europe has created economic and social concerns in many countries.  Last year, through the impetus of the European Year of Volunteering, Portuguese academic Henrique Pinto invited a range of scholars and practitioners to write articles about the connection of volunteering and migration for a special theme issue of Migrações Journal, "Migrantes e Voluntariado."  It was published in December 2011 with half the chapters in Portuguese and half in English.  The range of themes and geographical reach are reflected in the titles of the English articles:

• No one is illegal in one’s own bare body: Political exclusion and active citizenship
• Who Cares … Why Care?
• Persuading politicians: Researching the value of social capital in South Australia
• Volunteering within immigrant communities: The perspectives of volunteers in the Hmong, Latino, and Somali Communities of the United States
• International Volunteer Tourism: One Mechanism for Development
• A Culture of Volunteering: Charitable Activities among British Retirement Migrants in Spain
• Volunteering in Argentina: Another Matter Pending

I was privileged to be one of the authors and contributed “Laying the Foundation for Volunteer Success” (p. 101-19) in which I look at the main principles of volunteer management and highlight what is special when applied to engaging migrants as volunteers in their new homes.

The 220-page document was published in printed book form in Portugal but is available for free download at http://www.oi.acidi.gov.pt/docs/Revista_9/AF_Migracoes_9_web_Corrigida.pdf.