What do we know about volunteering involving people with a forced migration background?

Creating new knowledge, or drawing together existing knowledge, could help us to be smarter, safer and healthier in volunteering on a day-to-day basis, and help us to collectively act in safer and calmer ways in emergency or crisis situations. It could also help us understand what types of roles and activities can and should be done ‘well’ by volunteers.

Knowledge sharing and creation is a key way individuals, organisations, institutions, businesses and students could make a meaningful difference to all our local communities. If we could collectively identify the knowledge that would be most useful to communities and partners, perhaps we could engage supportive partners to help us achieve our goals.

The list of questions below highlight some things we don’t really know. These questions have come from practitioners, volunteers, ‘recipients’ of volunteering and those with a strategic interest in volunteering, social justice and migration. If we could respond to some of these questions, we may be more confident and directed in applying our different strengths and capacities in a coordinated fashion across the region.

Priority questions about volunteering activity

1. Where and how do people with a forced migration background give time in the region?
2. What volunteering opportunities and volunteer supported programmes are accessible to people in the region? How sustainable are they?
3. To what extent do ‘standard’ management, supervision, training, induction and support structures support volunteers/staff with different migration experiences and identities, or volunteers/staff working in migration settings?
4. How far do volunteering processes in Yorkshire and Humber routinely ask about and provide for holistic access needs?
5. What does good information, advice and guidance look like for someone who wants to volunteer with, or as people with a migration background?
6. How can people best co-create volunteer programmes alongside communities currently excluded?
7. What do we know of the volunteering experience, motivations and outcomes for people who have migrated and have specific identities or experiences?
8. Can we identify the differences in outcomes for people contemplating giving time to internships, work experience, mutual aid, volunteering or other unpaid activities?
9. Where are volunteers most needed in the region (in terms of skills and sectors)?
10. How many volunteer opportunities exist in the region?
11. What do we know about the barriers people face in volunteering outside of migration organisations?
12. What opportunities exist for highly skilled people to apply their skills in volunteering?
13. How do organisations source and value knowledge to inform their programmes?
14. To what extent do service targets impact the level of support people are given around accessing volunteering?
15. What support, training and mechanisms of accountability do volunteer managers have access to?
16. Does the pressure to adopt formal registration and structures cause harm to grassroots initiatives in marginalised communities?

Priority questions about volunteering outcomes

1. Can people with different migrant backgrounds reap the same benefits of formal volunteering as their teammates? What does this say about volunteering as a tool towards social justice?
2. How do people feel about receiving support from volunteers?
3. What are people’s experiences of volunteering or trying to volunteer in different settings in the region? 
4. How and when do newcomers access information about volunteering in the UK, and what difference does timing make to their outcomes?
5. What is the impact of the language volunteers and organisations use about their work and clients on people’s ability to access services, volunteer or work with them?
6. What is the impact of team culture on people’s ability to access and stay in volunteering/work?
7. How do we assess and mitigate the risk of harm to volunteers – for example, violence, micro-aggressions? How could we learn how to respond ‘well’ when it happens?
8. Are there examples of community care in volunteering?
9. What examples exist where volunteer organisations reward and recognise contribution in a socially just way?
10. What are the true costs of volunteering for people seeking asylum, or with newly achieved status? What compromises does their volunteering force?
11. What is the impact of DBS and vetting processes on people’s ability to participate in volunteering safely? What can we learn about this?
12. Does volunteering lead to better opportunities for employment, health, social connection and so on, for different people with a forced migration background?
13. What examples can we find where adapting a programme to support staff/volunteers with a migrant or other marginalised background has brought wider benefits?
14. What is the correlation between motivation of volunteers and harmful or positive volunteer practice?
15. What is the impact of working or volunteering with people experiencing similar issues to yourself, and what support can be offered to mitigate any difficulties?
16. How does being asked to talk about or hear about topics in an impartial way impact the wellbeing and engagement of those with lived experience of forced migration?
17. What is the impact on the relationship between volunteer managers and volunteers, where volunteers are seen as ‘beneficiaries’?
18. Which volunteering opportunities lead to best outcomes for people with a migration or forced migration background?
19. What is the difference in outcomes when services are delivered by staff and volunteers?
20. What is the difference in outcomes when services are delivered by people with a forced migration background, and when they aren’t?
21. Could English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) for volunteering and volunteer culture classes help people to achieve more through their volunteering?

Priority questions about structures of volunteering

Understanding

1. What impact does the way non-profit organisations talk about and represent volunteering with or by migrants have on perception and behaviour of native communities and newcomers?
2. What is preventing or supporting local authority and large volunteering organisations in making their volunteering programmes accessible to people with a forced migration background?

Tools

1. What tools exist to review volunteer programmes and systems with an anti-racist, intersectional or trauma informed lens?
2. What tools already exist that enable migrant volunteers to report their contributions in a way that local organisations, communities and employers understand and value?
3. What tools exist to support positive employee mentoring with people with a forced migration background?
4. What interventions help organisations to make meaningful structural change in relation to the volunteering experience?
5. What different versions of volunteering exist in the world? What do perceptions of volunteering in different countries and settings mean in terms of their engagement with volunteering and volunteer delivered services in the UK?

Imagining possibilities

1. What could trauma informed, anti-oppressive volunteering look like and how could we measure its impact?
2. How can we collectively work with funders to ensure progressive volunteering programmes are funded?
3. How can we make it safer for people to give honest feedback on the volunteer support or service they receive?
4. How can we act to avoid the predictable issues and narratives that cause harm and arise in every emergency response?
5. How can we support people positively through DBS and checks, or find safeguarding alternatives for those who cannot access checks?
6. How can we offer resources and space to volunteers and volunteer strategists in the region to support consistency, conversation, and the development of a connected community working towards shared goals?
7. How can we best support stretched groups and organisations to be able to welcome volunteers with a migrant background ‘well’?
8. How might volunteer managers and organisations ensure any diversification activity is not exploitative or harmful?
9. Is there a role for businesses in supporting volunteering involving people with a forced migration background?
10. What are the likely impacts of new immigration legislation on volunteering involving people with a forced migration background?
11. What impact can we have on local and national policy around migration and volunteering as a regional ‘volunteering’ community?