Nowadays “volunteering” has become a very important part of our society, not only to reflect the amount of support communities and disadvantage individuals need, but also to reflect the solidarity and compassion volunteers have for the society. It doesn’t matter if a volunteer helps somebody to do some shopping, enjoy quick chat or maybe going abroad and spend weeks helping whole communities devastated by a natural disaster. In all cases somebody has given their time (in many cases money) to help somebody else and the outcome of this work gives back not only an extremely rewarding feeling, but also unforgettable experience.
After the announcement some months ago by the previous government to force everybody who is applying to become a British citizen to first complete voluntary work for 6 months, the theme of volunteering has been brought to the discussion table. Since then voluntary organisations, groups and migrant organisations including MRN organised forums to discuss this issue and created the platform to respond on behalf of the organisations and migrants directly involved.
At this time the afore mentioned regulation has been thrown out by the new coalition government. Nevertheless important issues which might prevent migrants getting involved in volunteering should be still considered and addressed not only by organisations who look for volunteers, but also for migrants themselves.
According to the latest report “Engage to Change Migrant and Refugee Voices on Active citizenship” by MRN and MRCF last July, migrants and refugees mainly volunteer in migrant/refugee/asylum seekers organisations, local and community groups, voluntary organisations, faith institutions and trade unions. The roles vary, although they often include interpreting, providing language support, advocacy and campaigning, case work, training, cooking, cleaning, administrative jobs, organising events, sitting on group’s management committees, mentoring and befriending.The report also mentions that some of the principal motivations for migrant to volunteering are to try to “make a difference” and “contribute to the community”. Although this represents a “challenging experience” many migrant volunteers would recommend volunteering to their contemporaries.
Volunteering helps you to gain experience, meet people, in order to better understand life in the UK, improve skills, and above all is a very rewarding. The positive effects of volunteering are undeniable, however migrants face many barriers to volunteer - from fear, lack of confidence, culture, traditions, language, lack of time, lack of experience to find the right placement. On the other hand many organisations which are interested to promote their opportunities in the migrant communities; find themselves struggling to get the attention and interest in the communities.
A small mapping exercise between migrants online showed that the majority of migrants and refugees work as volunteers in organisations related to migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and in the care sector and there are a number of positive stories of migrants who decided to volunteer and gained not only experience but this also led the way to high education or paid work.
About ten years ago, volunteering wasn’t that known between migrants; I certainly remember when I was living in Essex, supporting a voluntary program as a full time volunteer: some of my friends, who came to the UK to study or work didn’t have any spare time left to do anything else and definitely thought volunteering wasn’t an option for them.
My first experience volunteering in the UK and being part of a wonderful team of volunteers and staff from many different countries was one of the best experiences of my life. Although it was certainly challenging it also gave me huge satisfaction and it helped me to understand the value of volunteering. Back in my home country I volunteered in local projects supporting communities and homeless children, and then back in the UK I found more and more opportunities with different organisations and groups. After some months volunteering I found a paid job supporting a voluntary project, which I still enjoy.
I have been working with volunteers for two years now and I can understand the difficulties for migrants who want to volunteer, but for various reasons they cannot do it; many times potential volunteers come back to me frustrated because they didn’t get their CRB’s after 4-5 months waiting; or those potential volunteers who's level of confidence is extremely low because of the language problems (even though holding universities degrees from their home countries) as well as migrant workers who would like to volunteer, but don’t have the time and energy to do it after long hours of work.
The “volunteering road” for migrants can be very difficult to walk, loads of stones, many roads, and plenty of obstacles; but when they decide to take it there is no way back. Their life’s can change so positively in many dramatic ways in just a matter of months.
At the same time having people from different countries, culture and languages volunteering enriches the diversity of the community and society, and encourages respect and tolerance.
