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Ethnic Communities and Volunteering
Maori, Pacific and Ethnic Groups
We recognise that for Maori, pacific and ethnic communities the concept of volunteering is different from the New Zealand mainstream idea of volunteering.
For Maori ‘Mahi Aroha' is the term that most closely translates to the concept of voluntary work. Mahi aroha is the unpaid activity performed out of duty and caring for others in accordance with the principles of tikanga to maintain mana and rangatiratanga, rather than for financial or personal reward.
Pacific people define volunteering as serving one another. A definition for volunteering for pacific people needs to take into account spirituality, cultural responsibility and obligation as well as the protocol and value bases of each pacific organisation.
Ethnic people think of volunteering as the fulfilment of family and social obligations and responsibilities. These activities revolve around helping, sharing and giving, first to their own family, closely followed by their extended families, then to their own ethnic communities and finally to the wider community.
Ethnic peoples volunteering in mainstream voluntary organisations
1. Formal volunteering can be an important avenue for refugees and migrants to:
- gain work experience
- become familiar with the New Zealand work environment
- practise their New Zealand English skills
- meet people outside their family and cultural group.
2. For those refugees and migrants who would like to participate in volunteering within mainstream organisations, there may be barriers which include:
- Some people who speak English as their first language respond with prejudice to people with limited oral and written English skills and different accents. It may be hard for these people to volunteer for community organisations if there are staff who are unwilling to make the effort with their own communication, or if communication with members of the public is required.
- Some voluntary organisations do not have the capacity to support refugee and migrant volunteers adequately and may therefore avoid involving them.
- There may be cultural barriers for people wishing to work in a mono-cultural New Zealand workplace. For example, some women may not feel comfortable working alongside men, or their husbands may not wish them to do so.
- Some refugees and migrants are unfamiliar with volunteering in a New Zealand context. Some people have suggested that there need to be workshops specifically for refugees and migrants to introduce volunteering to them.
- Some organisations have bureaucratic and intimidating processes or an organisational culture that cannot accommodate cultural diversity, or deal with challenges to mono-cultural ways of doing things.
3. The potential for exploitation of refugees and migrants who volunteer may be exacerbated by cultural and language barriers. Some people may volunteer on the understanding that they will be gaining and developing useful skills and experience, but find they end up doing menial work instead. Refugees and migrants may benefit from assistance in negotiating agreements with organisations about respective responsibilities and expectations, and some sort of advocacy or mediation support when things go wrong.
4. Mainstream organisations may also benefit from advice on how to provide appropriate volunteering opportunities for ethnic peoples and any issues that may arise from involving volunteers from ethnic communities. For example, one community member commented that some migrants may have a different view of the acceptability of ‘corruption', and may use a volunteering experience as an opportunity to access information or gain resources, in a manner that would be considered improper (and/or illegal) in New Zealand. The community member suggested that organisations need to be mindful of this kind of cultural difference.
5. Some ethnic migrants seeking paid work may be alarmed at the concept of volunteering, associating it with ‘slave' labour. A principle of formal volunteering that is often promoted by volunteering advocates is that the volunteering experience should provide some benefits to the volunteer, e.g. skill development.
6. Where volunteers are beneficiaries it is important that they understand that there is no longer any compulsion by Work and Income to ‘volunteer' for community services. They can, however, negotiate with their Work and Income case manager for their volunteering to be recognised in their job seeker agreements.
7. Refugees and migrants may benefit from assistance in finding volunteer positions. There are volunteering centres in various parts of New Zealand that can help people find volunteer opportunities. Some volunteering centres provide information for organisations on how to involve and support volunteers.
Affordability of volunteering and financial support
8. People may find it difficult to afford the costs involved in volunteering and fulfilling their cultural obligations; e.g. transport, car parking, childcare, lunch, photocopying and printing. Some people may also lose wages if they are required to take time off during the day.
9. In some formal volunteering situations, expenses to a volunteer should be reimbursed, if at all possible. This would include reimbursing the cost of people who attend government-run consultation processes.
10. Cultural obligations to do unpaid work can interrupt some ethnic people's paid work. Many ethnic peoples have extended families obligations, e.g. an elderly parent or grandparent falls ill and needs to be nursed. The responsibility for this care-giving usually falls on the daughter or daughter-in-law at home. This can lead to difficulties for the daughter or daughter-in-law if she is seeking full time employment.
Employers can also be unsympathetic to requests for paid leave or even unpaid leave for any extended periods of time, although good employers are more responsive
This paper summarises issues identified by ethnic peoples as impacting on their ‘volunteering' and ‘fulfilment of cultural obligations'. The comments in this paper do not reflect government policy or the views of the Ministry of Social Development.
