Migrants and their choice in Volunteering
Migrants and their Choice in Volunteering is an analytical and comparative report between the years 2012 and 2014 of people identifying as “migrants” who registered with Volunteering Auckland from throughout the Auckland region.
This report focuses on and analyses the ethnicity of migrants against gender, age, labour status, and their preference of voluntary roles, geographic areas and NGO organisations.
It also goes into further detail on those migrants identifying as “youth” [10—19 years] and as “job seekers”. All data was derived from Volunteering Auckland’s online Referral Database VACONNECT.
The data comparison between 2012 and 2015 shows that “student” migrants at 43% continue to be the largest group of people registering their interest to volunteer through Volunteering Auckland. There has, however, been a marked increase in those migrants identifying as “full-time employed”, from 27% to 33%, accessing volunteering with a wider range of opportunities taken up.
There has been a drop in those migrants “seeking employment” looking to volunteer from 25% to 18%. Could this be because NGOs are more reluctant to take on those looking for opportunities to enhance their employability?
Those migrants identifying as seeking employment or “job seekers” were more likely to choose opportunities in “administration & data entry”, “retail”, and “hosting/personal contact” and "fundraising-collectors”.
There has been an increase in migrant “youth aged 10-19 years” accessing voluntary opportunities from 14% in 2012 to 20% during 2015.
Migrant youth were more likely to look at being involved in a one-off, one-day type voluntary opportunity like “fundraising collectors” or in a personal contact-type role that fits around their studies and other commitments. There is more work to be done in this area to encourage NGOs to be more ‘youth-friendly’ in engaging this age as volunteers. See 'Placing Youth in a Volunteer Framework', 2014
Head “skill-based” and Hand ”practical” roles were the most preferred type of voluntary activities of choice for migrants.
Migrants are continuing to see that volunteering has a place in their busy lives and that Volunteering Auckland is the place to source these opportunities.
Migrants will go where the opportunity is, whether within their own Local Board area, their own community or within another location to ensure they are involved in a voluntary opportunity that suits their preference in time, talent and interests.
