Closing Doors or Building Bridges : Organizations as Gatekeepers of Volunteering for Asylum Seekers in Wallonia

Sammanfattning: This thesis aims at exploring the role of organizations in asylum seekers' access to volunteering in Wallonia, Belgium. In Belgium, volunteering has been allowed for asylum seekers since 2014. Studies made after 2014 in Wallonia have shown that volunteering can benefit asylum seekers. However, research on volunteering in other contexts has found that, while volunteering is often depicted as an inclusive practice, valuable for volunteers and society, inequalities restrict access to volunteering. Research on volunteering tended to focus on the individual characteristics and resources that make certain groups less likely to volunteer, but at the meso level, organizations also have a role in determining who can access volunteering. Based on semi-structured interviews with members of organizations, the analysis examines the management of volunteering for asylum seekers in Wallonia to understand how the organizations' practices facilitate or restrict access to volunteering. Findings show that a network of sending and receiving organizations, reception centers and volunteering organizations, shapes access to volunteering for asylum seekers. This network aims at creating links between asylum seekers and other parts of the population through volunteering. Throughout the promotion of volunteering and the selection of volunteers and volunteering opportunities, organizations adopt strategies to enhance asylum seekers' participation in volunteering and to lift obstacles restricting access to volunteering. However, some organizational practices, including this selection, lead to the exclusion of asylum seekers from volunteering.