Who volunteers? A study on the determinants of volunteering for refugee focused civil organizations, and gender differences within these determinants

Abstract

Introduction: More refugees are crossing Dutch borders, with civil society accommodating their integration process. Volunteers are of increased importance in our contemporary society. Literature suggests people’s obtained resources determine their voluntary participation, but insights on volunteering for refugee focused organizations still lack. Objective: Researchers have investigated determinants in doing voluntary work, and now it is important to better understand which aspects determine the likelihood to volunteer for refugee focused organizations. This study investigates ‘who’ these volunteers are. Theory: Human capital, social capital and cultural capital were used to understand the effects of education, social contact frequency and religiosity on the likelihood to volunteer. Additionally, socialization and social learning theory were applied to understand gender differences in the effect on volunteering. Method: Data from the LISS panel 2022 were used to answer the propositions, executing a binary logistic regression to understand the effect of education, social contact frequency and religiosity on the likelihood to volunteer. Results: Volunteering behavior was affected by educational level and religiosity, making human and cultural capital important mechanisms. Social contact frequency does not affect volunteering. Neither education, social contact or religiosity showed gender difference. Conclusion and implications: Higher education associates with higher odds in volunteering, through the contribution of cognitive competence, social status and social awareness. Religiosity influences volunteering due to altruistic and caring values religious people comply with. In attracting fitting volunteers, awareness should be created in higher educational, and more religious contexts. To reach the lower educated, the acquisition and awareness should be targeted to intermediate vocational education level. Academie van de Stad could carry this out, but municipalities have a role in facilitating a framework for the acquisition of volunteers at lower educational levels.