By providing meeting places, voluntary associations can have an important function for the possibilities of ethnic minorities to build social networks and learn about the Norwegian culture and democratic system.
In the reportEthnic minorities and voluntary organisations, Eimhjellen and Segaard (2010) analysed data about people of non-western backgrounds and compared it to the general Norwegian population in relation to attitudes towards- and participation in- voluntary work. The study showed that people with non-western background are less represented in voluntary work and as members in voluntary associations. And the more formal the connection to the associations is, the less people of non-western background is represented.
Now, five years later, we will carry out a similar study to get new and updated knowledge about people with migration background and their participation in the voluntary sector- both the general and the more migrant specific volunteering. Since the study was carried out in 2009, the migration to Norway from western countries, especially from Eastern Europe, has increased considerably. This is why we will have a particular focus on people with background from the Western world. This is a category that is well included in the Norwegian labor market, but we have little knowledge of their relation to the voluntary sector.
The project will be carried out as a survey among people with western and non-western migrant backgrounds about their relation to the voluntary sector in Norway. In this way we will be able to look for possible changes in participation patterns between 2009 and 2014, what types of organisations they participate in, how factors such as residence time, gender and language knowledge varies with participation, and if migrants specific land background has any significance in terms of patterns of participation.
