January 12, 2010
GI Workshop 5B on from the 11th IAVE A-P Regional Volunteer Conference Nagoya, Japan on Dec 9, 2007
General Interest Workshops 5B
December 9, 2007 13:15-14:45
11th IAVE A-P Regional Volunteer Conference Nagoya
"How Volunteering builds the Social Capital of refuges and migrants - Case studies from Australia and Spain"
Ms. Judith Miralles, JM&A
("Inclusion Case Studies - Volunteers with cognitive disabilities" by Ms. Moira Deslandes was also presented in this session)
Download the presentation below.
Q&A
Indira Dasgupta, India: Did you design the mentoring programs or did the communities do it themselves?
Ms. Miralles: They designed their own mentoring programs.
Kenn Allen, USA: Do you have any research that validates the concepts? And why do you conclude that government action is required?
Ms. Miralles: On the handout we passed around a lot of the documented evidence is that the volunteer work in community organizations creates the sense of trust and other aspects of social capital. We would like to do more research on this. But my experience tells me volunteerism produces the tangible results of the adult literacy.
With government people like James B Abraham in Ballarat are welcomed more easily into the community.
Ms. Deslandes: Government enables the infrastructure for volunteer organizations to work in. In Australia where social welfare is strong new policies are generally followed with government funding. So the expectation from Australians is that policy and funding are firmly connected. Personally, I think if government doesn’t get so heavily involved it’s a good thing, because community organizations and corporations can get involved.
Ms. Miralles: Formal support and public funding is needed to kickstart volunteerism.
Indira Dasgupta, India: Is there any resistance from mainstream society, and how do you deal with it?
Ms. Deslandes: We have found that volunteer organizations also resist helping people from different cultural backgrounds, but the reasons are because people feel inadequate to the task - they were not resistant to the idea, but didn’t know practically how to involve immigrants in service work. Once they discover it’s not so hard, the resistance disappears, and people discover they are really very similar.
Kenn Allen: Does this cover illegal immigrants?
Ms. Deslandes: The programs we introduced were for legal immigrants. Illegal immigration from Asia has dropped recently and most illegal immigrants are British and New Zealanders. Migrants are legally allowed to volunteer as long as they don’t take an opportunity from an Australian, but there are more than enough opportunities to go around. We never ask a migrant what visa they have when they ask to volunteer.
Japan: What’s the attitude to migrant laborers? Is there pressure to assimilate?
Ms. Miralles: Vilification happens, especially if you are Arabic or Muslim. Government policy is very important to create the right atmosphere.
END
See also
Event program
Comments
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