Resources, Culture, and Immigrant Participation in Formal and Informal Volunteering

This study examines formal and informal volunteering among immigrants and natives in Denmark. Drawing on resource-based and culture-based perspectives, it develops and tests the theory that non-Western immigrants participate less in formal volunteering because of socioeconomic disadvantages and weak-tie deficits, but more in informal volunteering because of stronger reliance on close-knit networks and cultural orientations toward collectivism. Using pooled data from the Danish Volunteer Survey (2012, 2020, 2024) and zero-inflated negative binomial models of monthly hours spent on each activity, the results suggest that non-Western immigrants are less involved in formal volunteering than natives, owing primarily to resource and network disparities. However, the analysis finds no evidence that non-Western immigrants engage more in informal volunteering than natives, nor that cultural orientations explain differences in informal volunteering. These findings challenge cultural explanations of immigrant volunteering and underscore the importance of structural inequalities and network access in shaping participation in civil society.