A comparative study of the motivations of volunteers who support refugees in the United Kingdom and in Sweden

Abstract

This dissertation explores the motivations of volunteers that are involved in supporting refugees in the United Kingdom and in Sweden. In addition to explore the motivations, the concepts of active citizenship and social capital was used to unpack what volunteering is and what the outcomes might be from volunteering. Semi-structured interviews were used to interview nine volunteers in total: five in the United Kingdom and four in Sweden. The volunteers in both countries said that the political refugee crisis in 2015 was important for them to start volunteering in supporting refugees. In addition to this reason, The British volunteers also expressed that they wanted to volunteer in general. The motivations of the Swedish volunteers were expressed as altruism, while the British volunteers expressed their motivations as potential résumé-building experiences for their future careers in addition to altruism. Social capital is tightly linked with volunteering, and a few of the British volunteers had access to social, cultural, and economic capital. This link was not as strong with the Swedish volunteers due to how the data collection was done. The difference in how the volunteers frame their motivations in regard to their volunteering, could be traced to the two countries’ political and social policies. The United Kingdom have a long tradition to promote volunteering in social services, while in Sweden, volunteering in leisure-like activities was privileged to promote active citizenship. These policies have probably informed how the volunteers in this study think, and act, in regard to volunteering.