Secular and religious volunteering among immigrants and natives in Denmark

Abstract

During the last 20–30 years Western societies have witnessed large scale migration from the Global South. This has given rise to important challenges in securing the social, civic and political integration of non-Western immigrants into Western societies. Previous research has suggested that participation in volunteering in civil society can serve as a ‘stepping stone’ towards integration for immigrants. Whilst the previous studies have shown marked gaps in the propensity to participate in volunteering between immigrants and natives, little work has been done to identify the mechanisms that explain these gaps. In this study, high-quality survey data, linked with data from administrative registers, are used, with the application of logistic regression based on the Karlson–Holm–Breen method to conduct mediation analysis. The mediation analysis shows that non-Western immigrants are significantly less likely to participate in secular volunteering compared to natives; however, over half of this gap is explained by an indirect effect via socio-economic status, self-rated health, generalized trust, informal social networks and the intergenerational transmission of volunteering. Moreover, the mediation analysis suggests that non-Western immigrants are more likely to participate in religious volunteering: this is completely explained by a strong indirect effect occurring via religiosity.