Uncovering social assimilation disparities: immigrants’ volunteering in associations

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examines how much immigrants from different country of origin groups assimilate to native-level volunteering in organizations in Denmark. We employ multilevel linear probability models, analyzing a dataset that combines repeated cross-sectional survey data with administrative register information. The dataset encompasses 15,771 respondents, of which 1,918 are immigrants from 127 different countries. Unlike recent European comparative research that has suggested that immigrants of all ethnic backgrounds ultimately reach parity with natives in their levels of civic participation in their destination countries, our findings reveal a different scenario in Denmark. Our results suggest that immigrants from predominantly Protestant and other Christian countries reach parity with natives in their level of volunteering, while immigrants from other countries do not. We show that socioeconomic disparities across immigrant groups partially account for these variations in volunteering assimilation, but even after accounting for socioeconomic factors and many other covariates, significant differences persist.