Religious and secular volunteering: a comparison between immigrants and non-immigrants in the Netherlands

Abstract

Using new survey data from the Netherlands, we find that non-immigrants are more likely to volunteer for secular organisations than guest worker immigrants and postcolonial citizen immigrants. In contrast, non-immigrants are less likely to engage in religious volunteering than both immigrant groups. We explain differences in the likelihood of religious and secular volunteering between immigrants and non-immigrants in the Netherlands by differences in level of individual resources, religiosity and having been asked to volunteer.