Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357

DOI 10.1007/s11266-016-9745-9

ORIGINAL PAPER

‘By Helping Others, We Helped Ourselves:’

Volunteering and Social Integration of Ex-Soviet
Immigrants in Israel

Natalia Khvorostianov1 • Larissa Remennick2

Published online: 9 June 2016

 International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University 2016

Abstract Recent immigrants seldom join the ranks of volunteers for various social
causes. Immigrants from former socialist countries have been shown to be partic-
ularly averse to organized forms of volunteering for reasons rooted in their past,
including forced forms of collectivism imposed by the state. In this qualitative
study, we explored the perceptions and practices of volunteering among ex-Soviet
immigrants (mostly educated middle-aged women) who ran a project for the benefit
of elderly. Our findings show that most volunteers chose causes targeting fellow
immigrants, their resettlement and well-being, and were motivated by the wish to
build co-ethnic support network and overcome marginalization in the Israeli society.
Other volunteers were driven by the need for self-actualization in the context of
underemployment and occupational downgrading. Personal empowerment and
higher identification with the receiving society were the most salient outcomes of
volunteering for our informants. We conclude that for some immigrants, volun-
teering can serve as a strategy of social integration.

Résumé Les immigrants récents rejoignent rarement les rangs des bénévoles pour
plusieurs causes sociales. Les immigrants en provenance des anciens pays socia-
listes se sont révélés particulièrement opposés aux formes organisées de bénévolat
pour des raisons liées à leur passé, et notamment le collectivisme forcé imposé par
l’État. Dans cette étude qualitative, nous avons examiné les perceptions et les
pratiques du bénévolat parmi les immigrants de l’ex-Union soviétique – majori-
tairement des femmes instruites d’âge moyen – qui menaient un projet destiné aux

& Natalia Khvorostianov

[email protected]
Larissa Remennick
[email protected]
1
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba, Israel
2
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

123
336 Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357

personnes âgées. Nos résultats montrent que la plupart des bénévoles avaient choisi
des causes visant d’autres immigrants, leur réinstallation et le bien-être, et qu’ils
étaient motivés par le désir de construire un réseau de soutien co-ethnique et de
surmonter la marginalisation dans la société israélienne. D’autres volontaires étaient
motivés par la nécessité de leur réalisation personnelle dans un contexte de sous-
emploi et de déclassement professionnel. L’autonomisation personnelle et l’iden-
tification plus élevée avec la société d’accueil étaient les effets les plus saillants du
bénévolat pour nos répondants. Nous en concluons que pour certains immigrants le
bénévolat peut servir de stratégie d’intégration sociale.

Zusammenfassung Neue Einwanderer schließen sich selten Gruppen von Ehren-

amtlichen an, die sich für verschiedene soziale Zwecke engagieren. Einwanderer
aus vormalig sozialistischen Ländern zeigen eine spezielle Abneigung gegen
organisierte Formen ehrenamtlicher Arbeit, die auf Gründen in ihrer Vergangenheit
beruht, beispielsweise vom Staat auferzwungene Kollektivismusformen. In dieser
qualitativen Studie untersuchten wir, wie Einwanderer aus der ehemaligen Sowje-
tunion (größtenteils gebildete Frauen mittleren Alters), die ein Projekt zugunsten
alter Menschen leiteten, ehrenamtliche Tätigkeiten wahrnehmen und praktizieren.
Unseren Ergebnissen zufolge wählten die meisten Ehrenamtlichen Zwecke, die auf
andere Einwanderer aus ihrem Land, deren Umsiedlung und Wohlbefinden ausge-
richtet waren, und wurden von dem Wunsch geleitet, ein co-ethnisches
unterstützendes Netzwerk aufzubauen und die Marginalisierung in der israelischen
Gesellschaft zu überwinden. Andere Ehrenamtliche wurden im Zusammenhang mit
der Arbeitslosigkeit und dem beruflichen Abstieg von einem Bedürfnis nach
Selbstverwirklichung angetrieben. Persönliches Empowerment und eine stärkere
Identifizierung mit den Leistungsempfängern waren die wichtigsten Resultate für
die Befragten. Wir kommen zu dem Schluss, dass die ehrenamtliche Arbeit für
einige Einwanderer als eine Strategie zur sozialen Integration dienen kann.

Resumen Los inmigrantes recientes raras veces se incorporan a las filas de

voluntarios en diversas causas sociales. Los inmigrantes de antiguos paı́ses socia-
listas han mostrado ser particularmente adversos a formas organizadas de volun-
tariado por motivos que tienen sus raı́ces en su pasado, incluidas las formas forzadas
de colectivismo impuestas por el Estado. En el presente estudio cualitativo,
exploramos las percepciones y prácticas de voluntariado entre inmigrantes
exsoviéticos (principalmente, mujeres instruidas de mediana edad) que llevaban a
cabo un proyecto en beneficio de personas mayores. Nuestros hallazgos muestran
que la mayorı́a de los voluntarios escogieron causas dirigidas a compatriotas
inmigrantes, su reasentamiento y bienestar, y estaban motivados por el deseo de
construir una red de apoyo coétnica y superar la marginación en la sociedad israelı́.
A otros voluntarios les impulsaba la necesidad de autoactualización en el contexto
del subempleo y la devaluación profesional. El empoderamiento personal y una
mayor identificación con la sociedad receptora fueron los resultados más sobre-
salientes del voluntariado de nuestros informantes. Concluimos que para algunos
inmigrantes, el voluntariado puede servir como una estrategia de integración social.

123
Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357 337

Keywords FSU immigrants
Volunteering
Social capital
Integration

Introduction

In most countries, participation in volunteer work for various social causes is more
typical of the established local residents than for recent immigrants. This gap
reflects both material reasons (immigrants’ lower income and lack of free time) and
cultural differences (value systems, religiosity, language barrier, attitudes toward
host society, etc.). Immigrants from the former socialist countries have been shown
to be particularly averse to organized forms of volunteering for a host of reasons
rooted in their past, including the memories of false or forced forms of collectivism
imposed by the state (Musick and Wilson 2008; Voicu 2014). Given paucity of
extant research in western democracies on the migrants raised in socialist countries,
in this study we explored the perceptions and practices of volunteer work among
FSU immigrants—participants in one volunteering project run by an Israeli NGO
for the benefit of the elderly. Our goal was to understand the motivations of
immigrant volunteers and the role of volunteering in the processes of their own
social and economic integration in their adopted country—Israel.

Theoretical Background

Capital Approach to Volunteering

Volunteerism is a complex phenomenon, defined by different scholars in different

ways. In this article, we draw upon the common definition of volunteerism by Cnaan
et al. (1996) which includes four main components: free-will behavior with no
monetary rewards aimed to help strangers on a long-term basis or in a formal set-
ting. According to Musick and Wilson (2008), people volunteer for many different
reasons: to express or act on important personal values; to learn more about the
world; to gain career-related experience; to reduce negative feelings and address
personal problems, or to strengthen their social relationships. Historically as today,
religious institutions have been the hubs of voluntary charity work deemed an
important moral obligation of believers in all monotheistic faiths (Ecklund 2005).
Volunteering as activity is associated with higher quality of life and social
adjustment; all around Europe, it is more common among higher social strata
(Voicu and Voicu 2009). A typical volunteer is young, healthy, well-educated, and
economically secure; psychologically s/he displays higher levels of trust. According
to the social capital model, involvement in social networks may explain why key
demographic features like age, gender, and education correlate with volunteerism,
why people of higher socioeconomic status are more active, and why ethnic
minorities are less likely to volunteer than whites (Wilson 2012). Moreover, better
social integration of ethnic minorities results in greater chances of being asked to
volunteer and of saying yes (Penner et al. 2005). Human capital model asserts that
people endowed with greater personal resources may wish to share them with others

123
338 Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357

and display more sophisticated personal needs including gratification from non-
material rewards, bringing them to volunteer organizations (Wilson 2012; Musick
and Wilson 2008). On the other hand, volunteering can empower disadvantaged
individuals. Thus, people who are unable to find work because of age, disability, or
ill health, can escape the stigma attached to these statuses by performing volunteer
work (Baines and Hardill 2008).
In this respect, immigrants comprise a special group. Language constrains,
cultural barriers, job-related difficulties, social isolation, and discrimination—all
these limit immigrants’ opportunities for successful adjustment in a host society.
Some scholars suggest that volunteering may benefit immigrants via its potential for
regaining social, human, and cultural capital lost in the migration process (Ager and
Strang 2008; Handy and Greenspan 2009; Giacomo 2009). Immigrants’ motivation
to volunteer may be rooted in a desire for making new connections (rebuilding their
social capital) and, in some cases, accessing the labor market (realizing their human
capital). They are also in search of information and aid in learning the language, the
culture, and the daily practicalities of the host country (cultural capital). Putnam
(2007, p.143) has made a famous distinction between ‘bridging social capital,’ in
which bonds of connectedness are formed across diverse social groups, and
‘bonding social capital’ that cements homogeneous groups from within. Bonding
volunteering is carried out for the benefit of specific members or the entire social
group to which volunteers belong. By contrast, bridging volunteering targets
members of other social and ethnic groups, to which volunteers may have no direct
relation or proximity. Unlike bonding social capital that occurs more naturally, by
virtue of the common ethnic background, creation of bridging social capital requires
getting outside of one’s comfort zone and results in weaker but more diversified
relationships. The bridging social networks may not be as strong as bonding social
networks, but they link people with different backgrounds and experiences together.
Immigrants may build bridging social capital by volunteering for mainstream non-
profit organizations and bonding social capital by volunteering in their ethnic
community (Lee and Moon 2011).

Immigrant Volunteerism: Fields and Motives

Recent studies show that immigrants volunteer more often for ethnic (religious and
non-religious) organizations and less for mainstream non-profits (Lee and Moon
2011; Wang and Handy 2014). Cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic barriers
channel the volunteer work of recent immigrants into helping members of their own
group (Ecklund 2005; Lee and Moon 2011). Some recent immigrants volunteer for
their in-group causes due to solidarity feelings while finding the idea of doing
volunteer work for strangers ‘‘inappropriate’’ (Sundeen et al. 2007, p. 248). Thus,
Chinese immigrants in a non-profit immigrant service organization in Vancouver
wanted to help others who were in the same difficult situation they had experienced
upon arrival. By volunteering, they also desired to create a stronger community, to
expand their social circles, make new friends, and lessen the feelings of loneliness
and isolation (Guo 2014). The high prevalence of immigrants volunteering in
religious congregations (Handy and Greenspan 2009; Ecklund and Park 2007) may

123
Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357 339

reflect more than their habits imported from the origin country. Churches, temples,
and mosques function as social centers that connect between people of similar origin
and culture; volunteers thus may glean indirect social benefits from their ‘good
works’ (Thomas 2011).
When immigrants choose to volunteer for the host country’s mainstream
organizations, they usually do it for integration purposes. For example, immigrant
adolescents who volunteered for Israel’s Emergency Medical Services (MADA)
perceived their work as an action enhancing their social participation. Volunteering
helped them understand the new culture and indicated their gradual integration in
the new community (Jaffe and Sasson 2014).
Unlike traditional forms of volunteering that are freely chosen, immigrants’
decision to volunteer for a host society organization may reflect labor market
pressures. Because of non-recognition of foreign credentials, devaluation of
international work experience and weak peer networks, many immigrant profes-
sionals work in ‘survival jobs’ in the service and manufacturing industries. In these
settings, they cannot use their skills and experience, which over time shrink or
become obsolete. For those who can afford (thanks to savings or family support) to
work for free in their field, volunteerism often serves as a strategy to enter the job
market. For example, Livingstone et al. (2004) indicated that 44.7 % of immigrants
who arrived in Canada in the previous 5 years volunteered to improve their job
opportunities. The primary motivation of immigrants volunteering was enhancing
their skills and gaining work experience in the new country (Slade et al. 2013).
While just a few immigrant volunteers defined volunteering as ‘‘help,’’ the majority
considered it as ‘‘work without pay’’ (Ksienski 2004, p. 21). Thus, immigrant
voluntary work in regular organizations may be more aptly described as a form of
social coercion: it provides employers with highly motivated workers who normally
should be paid but instead have to work for free.

Immigrant Volunteerism: Rates and Barriers

By and large, the studies in the US/Canada (Brown et al. 2003; Hall et al. 2009),
Europe (Voicu and Şerban 2012), Australia (Sundeen et al. 2007), and Israel
(Zychlinski and Kagan 2014) have found that immigrants are less likely to volunteer
than native residents. How do researchers explain this gap? First, the scope of
volunteering by members of minority groups is underreported, not only because
marginal populations are less likely to be reached by social surveys but also because
their voluntary work is less likely to be channeled through formal organizations
(Boyle and Sawyer 2010). The same factors that complicate immigrant integration
(economic constrains, social isolation, language difficulties, and cultural issues)
may prevent them from volunteering, with low host language proficiency being the
major barrier (Cleave and Doherty 2005; Fletcher et al. 2007). Sometimes
immigrants just do not know how to get involved (Scott et al. 2005; Thomas 2011).
Unexpectedly, those immigrants who did volunteer contributed more hours than
native-born volunteers (Hall et al. 2009). Similarly, immigrant adolescents who
volunteered for MADA in Israel were more highly motivated than native
adolescents (Jaffe and Sasson 2014).

123
340 Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357

As language constrains and job insecurity decrease, immigrant volunteer

involvement may get stronger. According to Voicu and Şerban (2012), after
spending 1 year in any European country, the immigrants are still less active in
voluntary associations than the natives but they tend to increase their involvement.
After 20 years, the difference shrinks and completely disappears in the second
generation. By contrast, Zychlinski and Kagan (2014) found significant differences
in volunteering between native-born Israelis and FSU immigrants also 20 years
later. In this study, motivations for volunteering (listed in the survey among other
social values) scored lower among the immigrants, and similar priorities passed on
to the second generation via promotion of individualistic pursuits. Possible
explanations have to do with immigrants’ previous experiences with participatory
culture (Voicu 2014) and general political situation (Aleksynska 2011) in the
country of origin. This was confirmed by Ruiter and De Graaf (2006), who found
that higher levels of democracy in the homeland (measured by the Freedom House-
Gastil Index) had a positive impact on volunteering because the already-existing
social skills were used and adapted to the new context.

Soviet Volunteerism Tradition

Free-will volunteer work and associative civic values were either non-existent or
weak and often faked under state socialism (Musick and Wilson 2008; Voicu
2014). The moral meaning of volunteerism was completely hollowed by
mandatory membership in collectivist movements, participation in the party and
trade union rituals, and doing compulsory unpaid work—posing as voluntary
contribution to society. In most socialist countries, including the USSR, the ruling
party organized and supervised ‘voluntary associations,’ including women’s and
youth movements, ecological groups, and different leisure activities. For example,
in Romania, even sport clubs were under close party control; their members could
manifest almost no initiative in organizing competitions, choosing venues, etc.
(Voicu and Voicu 2009). The so-called ‘Subbotniks’ (days of unpaid work on
Saturdays) held a few times a year were obligatory for all citizens in the Soviet
Union and its satellite countries. Some forms of ‘voluntary’ action amounted to
human rights abuses. For example, in the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster
in the Ukraine, many local workers were ‘volunteered’ to participate in the rescue
operation without being informed about the risks of radiation and proper
protective gear (Powell 2010).
Such ‘involuntary volunteering’ created aversion, distrust, and tacit resistance
among ex-Soviet citizens. Public space was construed by them as the scene of
ubiquitous lies or pretenses, while public activities served as the means of
displaying false loyalty to the state and fake emotions. This often led to the general
scorn and rejection of public life and volunteering (Leitch 1997; Voicu and Voicu
2009). In the Soviet successor states, volunteering remains uncommon: for example
in Russia, according to the local social surveys, only 4 % of citizens have done
regular voluntary work during the last year (The Public Opinion Foundation 2014).

123
Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357 341

Post-Soviet Immigration and Volunteering in Israel

The long traditions of both receiving immigrants (as Olim—repatriates to the

historic Jewish homeland) and volunteerism for various civic causes make Israel a
good case for our study. Welcoming and incorporating Jewish immigrants from
around the world has been the raison d’etre and the main tool of Israeli nation
building, while voluntary work for the common good lies at the core of the Zionist
ethos since the pre-state period. Despite the gradual drift toward individualist and
consumerist values ever since the 1980 (Kimmerling 2001), about 20–25 % of
Israelis of all ages and walks of life contribute to voluntary activities periodically or
permanently. Certain forms of voluntary work are often indispensable in the modus
operandi of Israeli institutions. For example, members of the Zofim (scouts) youth
movement engage in environmental projects and help the lonely elders; university
students tutor school pupils with learning difficulties thus becoming role models for
disadvantaged children; some lawyers offer free legal aid to poorer Israelis;
specially trained counselors help supplicants in Small Claims Court; volunteers
maintain the Citizens Aid Service (advising on work, taxes, social security, and
legal matters), as well as the hot lines for senior citizens, youth, and women.
Thousands of Israelis volunteer for various NGOs spanning the range of services
from family planning to chronic disease and rape counseling, soup kitchens for
African refugees, animal shelters, etc. Even Israeli Defense Forces embraces
voluntary aid from citizens who host lonely soldiers on weekends and holidays,
open field canteens and rest stations in days of war or do maintenance in the
warehouses.
Immigrant aid associations burgeoned with the influx of immigrants from the
former Soviet Union (FSU) and Ethiopia during the 1990s. Volunteers helped the
newcomers with their primary needs and relevant information about housing, jobs,
schooling, health care, etc. Since then, Israeli voluntary movement has construed
FSU Olim (and even more so the Ethiopians) as an object rather than a source of
voluntary aid (Sharon 1996).
The recent wave of immigration coincided with dramatic transformations of
Israeli society that gradually parted with its fundamental values of social solidarity
and collectivism, adopted neoliberal economic principles, shrunk its welfare safety
net, and became less idealistic and more pragmatic. The internal social stratification
along the lines of religion, ethnicity, geographic location, and social class was
reinforced by the weakening of the overarching national Zionist narrative. In other
words, over the last two decades, Israel has grown more socially diverse and
polarized than ever, with the ensuing plurality of communities and identities within
this territorial and political entity (Kimmerling 2001; Shavit et al. 2014).
Thus, while both the official Zionist discourse and public opinion welcomed ex-
Soviet immigration as beneficial to the Israeli society, the sentiments toward actual
Olim were tempered by life’s realities including competition between long-time
residents and newcomers for scarce jobs, housing, and public services (Remennick
2007). FSU immigrant community is endowed with high human capital: more than
half the immigrants have higher education and two-thirds had been employed in
white-collar occupations prior to migration. Yet, even after 15–20 years of life in

123
342 Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357

Israel, the occupational structure of Russian-speaking Olim is skewed toward low-

to-middle skilled jobs in industry and services and many of them work via
employment agencies, with resulting lower income and benefits vis-à-vis veteran
Israelis in similar jobs (Remennick 2012). While high numbers of FSU immigrants
serve in the IDF, they are seldom present in the higher ranks of the military; few of
them work in government services and business management. Their image in Israeli
media and popular culture is rather marginal; during the 1990s, they were often
portrayed as prostitutes, frauds, and criminals (Lemish 2000). Despite all this, over
80 % of FSU immigrants (including the non-Jews) answer in social surveys that
they do not regret their decision to immigrate to Israel and view it as their home
(Philippov 2010).
By now, the immigration from the FSU to Israel has nearly stopped, but Russian-
speaking immigrants still constitute the largest ethno-linguistic minority of about
13 % of the population (Leshem 2009). Recent FSU immigrants are culturally
different from other Israelis: they attribute less importance to Jewish religion and
traditions (Levy 2009); many are partly Jewish and/or intermarried with Slavs and
feel deeply connected to the country of origin, are proud of its culture and wish to
transfer it to their children. In Israel, they created an autonomous subculture within
the majority Hebrew-speaking population, with its own press, television channels,
book and food stores, youth clubs and theaters catering to the needs of the Russian-
speaking population. These cultural venues became an integral part of Israel’s urban
landscape (Elias and Khvorostianov 2007; Prashizky and Remennick 2015).
Although FSU immigrants have much to offer to Israeli society as volunteers,
their involvement in voluntary activities remains low and their perceptions negative.
According to a recent national survey, only 13.2 % of them have ever volunteered in
Israel, compared to 22.9 % for Israeli Jews in general (Central Bureau of Statistics
2014). Zychlinski and Kagan (2014) explained the low rates of volunteering among
FSU immigrants and their children as a problem of acculturation: early Soviet
socialization overrides the influence of re-socialization in Israel. They also
connected civic disengagement of these immigrants with their focus on pragmatic
goals (occupational mobility and narrowing economic gaps with veteran Israelis)
and social marginalization. In a similar vein, Leshem (2009) connected low levels
of FSU immigrants’ volunteering with their general integration problems: lower
satisfaction with life in Israel and skepticism about Russian-speaking citizens’
economic and political rights correlated in their survey with fewer weekly hours of
voluntary activities.
Probably, there are several complementary explanations of why FSU immigrants
in Israel do not volunteer: the post-soviet heritage of civic apathy and mistrust,
language barrier, economic survival issues, social exclusion, and more. However, all
this makes us wonder why nevertheless some FSU immigrants choose to volunteer
and how to encourage them to participate more in the host society. In the context of
surging global migrations, it is important to determine whether and how does
volunteering help immigrants mediate the stress and losses caused by resettlement.
In this study, we examine the unique experiences of adult volunteers who have
immigrated to Israel from the FSU five to 25 years ago. We explore how these adult
immigrants got involved in volunteering, which factors influenced sustainability of

123
Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357 343

this behavior, and whether this experience eventually helped them to better integrate
in the Israeli society.

Methods

Our research was carried out in ESHEL—a large national NGO that provides
various social and cultural services for the elderly. Among other activities, ESHEL
runs a multi-year project called ‘‘Warm Home’’ (Bait Ham in Hebrew) in which it
engages volunteers of different linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, including 205
Russian-speaking immigrants. These volunteers became the hosts of Warm Homes,
entertaining bi-weekly 10–18 elderly immigrants, their neighbors and acquain-
tances, typically in their own apartments (more rarely in rented premises). These
evenings/parties revolve around food, board games, conversation, singing, and
watching movies; they cater for the lonely immigrants who for various reasons
cannot attend formal settings for senior citizens. The volunteers receive the monthly
budget of some $150 to cover their expenses but have to tend to all organizational
matters by themselves. Although the project is sponsored by a large Israeli NGO,
these volunteers come together only twice a year for the seminars and experience
exchange (held separately for the speakers of Hebrew and Russian); for the most
part they work independently and do not really feel any institutional connection
with ESHEL.
The study included a survey among immigrant volunteers aimed at sketching
their social and demographic profile (not reported here) and 21 semi-structured
interviews that explored various aspects of immigrant volunteering. A survey
indicated that about 70 % of the volunteers were educated older women. Among
them we selected 17 women and 4 men for in-depth interviews. The informants
were in the age range of 49–90 (with the mean of 68); their tenure in Israel was
between 4 and 23 years (with the mean of 13), and the mean duration of their
volunteering in Israel was 8 years (1–21). Most informants were un/underemployed
or retired and lived in rented flats (rather than owned homes like most Israeli elders).
Eleven informants lived alone, 14 of 21 had difficulty speaking and understanding
Hebrew. At the same time, most informants were generally satisfied with life in
Israel and saw it as an improvement over their lives in the FSU. In the survey many
of them explained their voluntary work by the wish to contribute to the overall well-
being of the Israeli society and its members.
Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim for thematic analysis using
Atlas software. The analysis drew on grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss 1967),
which places emphasis on generating theory from the empirical findings. In other
words, researchers can be ‘‘open to what the research site has to tell’’ (Glaser and
Strauss 1967, p. 118) rather than setting specific hypotheses a priori.
While unable to achieve full-scale triangulation, we nevertheless used two
additional procedures to verify our qualitative findings. After the first round of the
interviews, we conducted three follow-up group sessions with our informants and
other volunteers asking them to comment on the ‘‘refined’’ findings, including the
key themes and categories derived from their narratives (Creswell 2009, p. 178).

123
344 Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357

Subsequently we also interviewed a veteran program manager from ESHEL who

recruits immigrant volunteers, trains them and supervises their work—to elicit her
response to our key findings and interpretations.
Both authors, representing different disciplines—sociology and social work—
with a shared interest in immigration studies, independently analyzed the
transcripts. The differences between us not only added multiple perspectives when
co-constructing the meaning of texts and provided a richer interpretation, but also
raised several disputes about our framing of data interpretation. The different
interpretations were discussed and adjudicated, and in the end no data were omitted
due to unbridgeable gaps.
A four-step analytic procedure was developed: (1) Interview transcripts were
reviewed initially using open coding to identify emerging themes or categories; (2)
overarching themes were extracted by deriving categories from the differences or
similarities between one item and another using constant comparative method; (3)
data were assembled in new ways through connections among categories and sub-
categories by axial coding; (4) all major categories were compared with reference to
key theories in the field, including extensive descriptions and specific examples to
illustrate each category (Strauss and Corbin 1990). We intentionally looked for
‘‘negative cases’’ that contradict or challenge our chief interpretations of the data,
seeking more nuanced analysis and continuing data collection until a theoretical
saturation point was reached at which no new or relevant themes emerged and
relationships among emergent themes were well established and clear (Strauss and
Corbin 1990).
Our analysis elicited some new theoretical insights on the role of volunteering as
a strategy of migrant integration (rather than its outcome), shed more light on the
various forms of bonding and bridging capital involved in migrant civic
engagements, underscored the salient role of informal, self-initiated kinds of
volunteering, particularly for occupational readjustment of recent immigrants, and
demonstrated how voluntary work fostered their personal and institutional
empowerment. Below we present and discuss the key themes that emerged in the
interviews, illustrating them with typical quotes. Informants’ aliases are followed by
the year of immigration and age.

Findings

Although in the Soviet Union, most respondents were involved in different kinds of
unpaid work ‘for the benefit of community’(obshestvennaya rabota in Russian), it
could hardly be interpreted as actual volunteering. For one, it was not really
voluntary (often called in the Soviet lingo ‘communal duty’—obshestvennaya
nagruzka). Often an employee consented to carry on some additional function in a
workplace trade union or party cell in order to appease the boss and be eligible for
promotion. Judging by our informants’ accounts, in most cases these functions were
rather formalistic, paying a tribute to the ideological norms that every Soviet
organization had to meet (organizing meetings and events; writing minutes and
reports). Despite resenting these imposed activities in their past (or maybe because

123
Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357 345

of it), they looked for meaningful venues to contribute to public good rather soon
upon migration to Israel. This decision was often made at the moments of identity
crisis and entangled with feelings of social exclusion from the receiving society.
‘‘By helping others we helped ourselves’’—this is how Sveta (1990-64) defined the
essence of immigrant volunteering. What kind of help did she have in mind? Our
analysis tapped on the three main roles that volunteers’ work played in their
integration: labor market entry; co-ethnic community building; and acculturation in
the new society. Below we will elaborate on each of these roles.

Volunteering as a Respite: Occupational Downgrading and Job Search

Our informants typically immigrated from the USSR/FSU with significant human
capital: they had worked there as engineers, doctors, teachers, accountants,
journalists, and other ‘white-collar’ professionals. Most were proud of their former
work experience and considered themselves members of ‘intelligentsia’ or even
cultural elite. Despite their being relatively young at migration (typically in their
1940s or early 1950s), most informants, like other immigrants of the 1990s wave
(Remennick 2012), could not implement their human capital on the small and
saturated Israeli labor market. The only jobs offered to them were in manufacturing,
services, cleaning, and eldercare—construed by them not just as physically harsh
and monotonous but also humiliating. Since their occupations had been very central
in their lives, the loss of professional identity had to be compensated for by finding
another meaningful role. ‘‘I think your profession makes you who you are. When I
realized that in Israel I won’t be an engineer but just an office cleaner, I looked for
something else to do in order not to lose myself completely…’’ (Yizhak 1994-68).
Below we show how volunteering compensated for the loss of professional self and
indirectly facilitated local labor market entry for some of our informants.
For the older immigrants with slim chances for finding skilled jobs, volunteer
activities in the social and cultural domain became a respite from their tedious and
boring day jobs. For example, Natalia (1994-64) for a few years volunteered in the
local Russian library initially put together from donated book collections of several
retirees moving to assisted living. The library project emerged spontaneously in
1991 when one immigrant volunteered to catalog these books and hand them out to
potential readers. The library was set in a local bomb shelter of about 40 m2,
without windows or ventilation, and was run by volunteers. Small membership fees
were used to purchase new books. By 2005 (when one of the authors joined it), this
library became the largest in the city, including over 20,000 volumes and serving
about 500 readers a day. Neither the municipality nor local immigrant absorption
authorities were aware of its existence and hence granted no support (or hindrance).
The amateur librarians worked for free but still there was a long waiting list of
potential volunteers. Let us hear what Natalia had to say about this work.
Between 1991 and 2012, I worked in the Russian library every day! I was
there from the outset and never asked for a pay… Working there for a few
hours meant a pleasure of being among nice people and great books. Since it
was all in my native Russian, I could express my thoughts and listen to

123
346 Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357

others… Finding an interesting book was a great respite from my day job; it
helped forget all the privations waiting for me…I’d find a gem of a book to
take home and read till 3 am – getting up early next morning for a long
workday… Did my library job contribute to my absorption in Israel? Not
really, but it helped me survive and keep my sanity. It was rather a parallel
world to which I wanted to escape from my Israeli absorption.
Natalia had been an accountant in the FSU and hence professionally unrelated to
humanities or literature. Upon migration (at the age of 40) she soon gave up on
finding a professional job and worked shifts at an industrial plant. Her everyday life
was bleak, monotonous and rather hopeless. The volunteer work in the Russian
library helped her find an alternative venue for self-actualization. The small library
basement was seen by her as Aladdin’s cave where miracles happen; every random
immigrant who walked in to change the books was seen as a friend. To sustain this
illusion, Natalia was ready to work for free in unpleasant physical conditions of a
dark shelter. The dichotomy in her descriptions was stark: her routine Israeli life
was described as empty and alien, while the Russian library served as an anchor of
the familiar, the home of kin spirits. These two realities existed separately and never
crossed; the escape into the familiar world of Russian letters allowed this woman a
joyful cultural respite from her ‘absorption’ into hard and unrewarding physical
work that Israel had to offer. Thus, the voluntary work served as a coping tool
offsetting the effects of occupational and social downgrading she experienced in her
daily life.
The immigrants who were younger at arrival saw the unskilled physical work as
temporary and kept looking for more appropriate jobs. Their poor command of
Hebrew, the need for local licensure and harsh competition made this dream rather
elusive—the Israeli employers were not interested in hiring them. In this context,
some informants decided to work in their original field for free. The linguistic and
social barriers limited their search to the co-ethnic community; when some
communal institutions already existed they offered their services for free, and when
there were none they formed communal networks working from their own homes.
Let’s listen to Riva (1991-59):
I came to Israel as an experienced music teacher at the age of 36. I loved my
profession and was eager to start working right away… so I went to the
Ministry of Education to inquire how to become a music teacher in
Israel…and they hired me on the spot – as their office cleaner… Later I
made rounds in different schools and community centers but none was
interested in hiring me as music teacher and choir master. How could I use my
experience and keep my dignity despite cleaning offices? I found a few kids
with decent voices in my neighborhood and organized a choir, in my own
rented apartment. Where else could I do it? It wasn’t for money but for the
sake of feeling useful and staying in my profession. We rehearsed twice a
week, and with the help of the kids’ mothers sewed costumes for the choir. It
took much effort to convince local officials to let us perform in a few
concerts… And then we won the 1st prize in the national competition of child
choirs! After that the absorption authority offered to pay for my work…and I

123
Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357 347

proudly received 800 shekels as a professional, not a cleaning woman… A few

years later I was hired as a full-time community worker in my city.
Riva started her way in Israel confident that her skills would be wanted but was
shocked to see that the new society was unmoved by her enthusiasm and pigeon-
holed her as a cleaning woman. Persistent in her intention to stay a musician, she
organized a home-based choir and after proving her talents by winning a national
competition was hired to work with immigrant children in a community center.
Thus, she has paved her own way to regular employment by her many years of
volunteering. The kind of job she has finally procured (an intercultural community
counselor, megasheret in Hebrew) was not a replication of her original one but it
also hinged on her organizational and musical talents. Thus, after 13 years or
volunteering in her own profession (while earning a living by cleaning), Riva has
finally managed to get paid for the kind of work she loved and was good at.
Like Riva, none of our informants could reproduce their former Soviet
occupation by means of volunteering in their professional field. As a rule, they
discovered or built for themselves new employment niches which were required on
the Israeli labor market, typically serving the needs of the co-ethnic immigrant
community. This kind of track—from toiling in manual labor force while trying to
return to one’s original profession, to discovering a new employment venue
matching much better their actual skills and dispositions—was typical for several
ex-professionals in our study. For example, the afore-mentioned Natalia found
stable and highly satisfying work in a Russian book store thanks to her long-term
volunteering in the library. However, she kept volunteering also after finding
satisfactory employment—indicating that volunteer work meant more in her life
than just a tool for labor market entry.

‘‘This is our Microcosm:’’ Overcoming Social Isolation and Ethnic

Community Building

Overcoming their marginal locations in the Israeli society by building a co-ethnic

community as a personal comfort zone was another important motive for voluntary
activities. Many informants were simply looking for new friends among other
Russian immigrants living in the vicinity. One of the few male informants, Leonid
(1990-93) was also building a network of friends with a similar biography and
common needs.
My absorption in Israel has always involved volunteering. I immigrated at the
age of 67, but I was full of energy. As a WWII veteran, I was looking in vain
for a local veteran union, so I decided to organize it. I applied to the local
authority and was given a room… I personally printed the ads and stapled
them at the town crossings, inviting elderly Russian War veterans to come to
the meeting. At the 1st meeting the turnout was over 150 people…Thanks to
this club I met many new friends and together we built a community catering
for our own needs. We relied on the professional skills of our members: thus
we ran a voluntary out-patient clinic staffed by our retired MDs; we had live
music evenings with our musicians, lectures by the scientists and after-school

123
348 Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357

classes for the children. This was my first voluntary project that ran for many
years and nobody paid for my work (rather, I invested my own funds and time
to maintain the club premises). We called it ‘‘The Union of War Veterans and
Other Russian-Speakers’’ because its doors were open to all. At the peak we
had 450 members plus their families—the community of friends with the
common past and current challenges, speaking our native language. This club
was the center of my life for many years.
Our informants were not driven solely by their personal need to find friends in the
new country but rather a more general wish to build a network of Russian
immigrants with similar interests and problems. They organized home-town
associations, literary and scientific groups, chess and dance clubs, choirs, etc. All
these groups were created and sustained by the voluntary work of a few enthusiasts,
but all their members could benefit from expanding their social circles and
regenerating their social capital lost in the process of resettlement. Thus, the actual
purpose of these associations was a strong social drive of coming together, offering
help and support to each other, i.e., ‘‘building a microcosm within a larger society’’
for comfort and solidarity often denied to them by mainstream Israel.
While fortifying intra-ethnic ties, volunteering within the immigrant community
could also reinforce the sense of otherness and isolation from the Israeli
mainstream. Most informants did not master Hebrew beyond the basic level, and
their main sources of consumption, information and entertainment hinged on the co-
ethnic businesses and Russian media. Many of them believed that their social
insertion into the society of native Israelis is impossible (and probably unnecessary)
because they live in ‘parallel worlds.’ Nina (1992-71), another Russian library
volunteer, mused:
Do I feel part of the Israeli society? Not really, as I live on its margins.
Physically I live on its territory and partake in its comforts but socially I am
disconnected. My language, my memories remained in Russia, while the local
Hebrew culture is alien to me. I have no close friends among the natives. My
friends and I help fellow Russian immigrants because it adds meaning to our
lives, fosters our self-respect. We could also help poor Israeli elders, for
example, but without common language and shared interests it would become
a mere physical task, like working for free in geriatric care – without any
personal impact or satisfaction.
Nina has lived in Israel for over 20 years, but this country remains mainly a
‘territory’ she inhabits, while her mental and emotional stakes are mostly invested in
her past and her current ties with other immigrants. She does not even try to get
integrated in the mainstream and invests her efforts in building the co-ethnic
community, her personal comfort zone and the only realm of self-realization. Even
when some volunteers wished to break out of their community limits and volunteer
for the general Israeli enterprises, they didn’t have the means (the language or social
ties) of accessing these volunteer settings. Thus, Sofia (1990-64) recounted:
I’ve read that Israel has rich traditions of volunteer work, for example, for the
benefit of the army. Although this is new for us, I’d be happy to help in any

123
Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357 349

physical effort, like washing soldiers’ uniforms during the war, or taking care
of the wounded at the hospital…if I only knew where my help is needed and
how to get there; nobody has called on me yet… I saw a TV report about an
Israeli who constructed a mobile shower unit and brought it on his tender to
the desert combat stations so that our boys and girls could shower. I would be
happy to do something like this if only I had the means…I need someone to
introduce me to these Israeli volunteer services… The same with the family
violence victims – I’d be happy to offer them a shoulder to cry on but won’t
know what else I can offer, speaking so little Hebrew.
Sofia’s words reflect the deep ambivalence of many older Russian immigrants
who feel solidarity with the Israeli national causes and social problems but, at the
same time, observe native Israelis and their struggles through the virtual glass wall
that they are unable to penetrate. Sofia is willing to be more active in Israel’s civil
society, but she needs to overcome a language barrier and meet an ‘agent’ of her
socialization into the mainstream volunteering. For now, she gets her clues from the
media (Russian newspapers and TV channels) learning about the ‘external world’ of
Hebrew speakers, but this coverage doesn’t give her practical tips on how to join.
Notably, Sofia who’s been involved in the Warm Home project for 4 years still feels
strange in the Israeli volunteering realm, also because she belongs to ESHEL’s
Russian Division and hardly meets any Israeli peers.
This reminds us that the apparent self-segregation of minority groups and
activities is often reactive, reflecting the lack of the outreach initiatives by the
mainstream organizations not really interested in expanding their traditional core of
volunteers. To quote Penner et al. (2005, p. 376), ‘‘The more involved people are in
their community, the more likely they are to be asked to volunteer and then to agree
when asked.’’ Since native Israelis have internalized the stereotype of Russian
immigrants as coming from a ‘non-volunteering’ culture, the leaders of local
voluntary groups do not even try to offer participation to these immigrants
(generally or beyond the scope of the specific co-ethnic causes).

‘‘Learning to Swim in this Free Society:’’ Re-socialization and Integration

Despite the described general tendency to co-ethnic segregation, for some

informants volunteering still served as a venue of social learning in the new
country. It still drew on their own needs as recent immigrants but inevitably pushed
them to learn the ropes of the new society, its everyday social codes and
bureaucratic routines. Tania (1990-71) recounted the beginnings of her voluntary
work to broach Israeli institutions catering for fellow immigrants:
When I arrived in 1990 I was 45; I joined a group of other singles living in a
mobile group home. With a few other women we started learning about our
rights as newcomers and how to access those rights vis-à-vis the General
Union (Histadrut), Social Security, local housing authority etc. After we’ve
broken this path for ourselves, we helped others to get their monies, enter
permanent housing waiting lists, etc.… Besides practical necessity, I was also
driven by curiosity to learn about the Israeli state and its institutions… later I

123
350 Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357

joined a course for volunteers run in Hebrew and got an even better handle of
the local realities. When fellow Russians addressed me for help, I could tap on
their mistakes (reflecting their old-country mentality) and suggest a proper
course of action. Over time I felt more confident about acting in conflict
situations or under stress. Like, during the recent Gaza war a rocket hit our
courtyard doing a lot of damage. The neighbors were shaken, but I
immediately knew how to approach local authorities to ensure quick repair
works… Thus my volunteering was an eye-opening experience for me: I’ve
discovered actual Israel and how it works, for better or worse. You have to
learn how to swim in its turbulent waters.
For Tania, volunteering and self-help initiatives became a re-socialization
strategy in the new country. Tending to her own housing and income problems, she
became an expert navigator of complex Israeli bureaucracies and a guide for her
neighbors and friends in solving their problems. She quickly realized that the
solutions were only found outside the immigrant community; learning Hebrew and
local social codes were driven by both her survival needs and intercultural curiosity
of a newcomer. Tania describes her history of volunteering as an exciting journey of
social learning about the new state, its political system and mechanisms of citizens-
state interface, rather different from those in her Soviet past. She learned from
mistakes of other newcomers and overcame the limits of the ‘old mentality,’ which
made her more confident and poised in complex situations. Her volunteer liaison
activity helped Tania to ‘swim in the turbulent waters’ of Israel without either
idealizing it or being permanently disappointed and angry (like many other
Russians). Her expertise in the matters of immigrant housing eventually led her to
participate in the national effort to overhaul public housing legislation and present
her ideas in the Knesset. Although she leads a modest life as a single retiree
receiving a small social benefit, she feels better grounded in this society than many
other Russian elders (also because of her better Hebrew) and feels the need to
participate by volunteering.
Like Tania, other informants detached from skilled labor force relied on
volunteering as their alternative integration strategy; it helped them learn Hebrew
and meet local Israeli residents of different origins and occupations. Thus, Elena
(2008-44), a theatre director in the FSU, said:
Volunteering became the main engine of my absorption in Israel. What would
I do otherwise, without Hebrew and local professional experience – lock
myself in the ‘Russian ghetto’ and simmer in our old Soviet mentality? No
thanks. Many of our folks are scared to get out of this bubble and face a new
culture, risking being hurt and misunderstood. For that reason we choose
Russian-speaking doctors and lawyers, god forbid to strive with a Hebrew
speaker or even worse – an Arab… I was also like this, but volunteering
helped me meet other Israelis and change my mind about them. Now I am free
from any prejudice towards Arabs or any other people who are unlike me; I am
curious about them rather than scared. We live in Acre where Arabs are half of
the population, so it’s crucial for us to get to know them and break the ice… I
met nice Arab women in the volunteer group I joined and now my political

123
Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357 351

outlook has changed; I am sure that peacemaking is the only way to live in
Israel. I value people for their personal merits regardless of their faith, skin
color or language. This psychological freedom and fearlessness mean breaking
the invisible walls of the Russian ghetto… I am sure our Russian volunteers
should try their luck in Israeli politics when they are ready… I went to the
Knesset once and even spoke at the commission for immigrant matters… Here
in Acre I can be useful as a stage professional: at the community theatre I’ve
directed a play about one housing project where Sabra Israelis, Russian and
Ethiopian Jews and Arabs all live side by side…
Elena manifests an unusual for her age (44) and tenure in Israel (7 years) level of
social integration and positive disposition toward multicultural Israel. Her
experiences and attitudes are at a stark difference with the prevailing norms of
her co-ethnics. She has left the boundaries of the Russian community soon upon
resettlement and actively sought contact with native residents, including Israeli
Arabs. Her attitudes celebrating diversity and peace and valorizing democratic
values depart far away from the typical set of ethnocentric and authoritarian
worldviews of most ex-Soviets immigrants. These differences may be personal,
generational or both, but volunteering experiences in pluralistic Israeli settings have
reinforced her pre-existing liberal dispositions. It was also actively used by her as a
vehicle of Hebrew learning, social insertion and building new personal networks.
Thus volunteering in the mainstream Israeli organizations can be seen as an
additional mechanism of migrant re-socialization, playing for them the same role
that IDF service or school/college studies play for younger immigrants. Volunteer-
ing as an alternative inclusive practice may be especially salient for those
immigrants who have slim hopes of entering mainstream professional settings (like
Elena who used to be a stage director) because of age, language, and other barriers.

Summary and Discussion

Earlier studies have highlighted the reasons for non-participation of ex-Soviet

immigrants in voluntary activities in their adopted countries: poverty, long working
days, language barrier, social isolation from the advanced social strata of volunteers
in the host society (Aleksynska 2011; Voicu and Şerban 2012), and apathy or
skepticism reflecting their pre-migration experiences of ‘mandatory volunteerism’
(Uhlin 2006). More puzzling then is the question of why, despite all these barriers, a
fairly high share of these immigrants in Israel (over 13 %) does choose to volunteer.
This study pursued several related goals: to explore motivations for volunteering
among Russian immigrants, its temporal patterns, and the implications of this choice
for their integration in the new country. Below we summarize some theoretical
insights and policy-relevant ideas that can be gleaned from our findings in the
context of earlier research on immigrant volunteers.
Although the study sample was relatively small and drew upon one (although
nation-wide) organization, we believe that it reflects the features of the collective
portrait of ex-Soviet volunteers in Israel. Most are middle-aged or older women who

123
352 Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357

had been educated professionals before migration but could not implement their
human capital on the Israeli labor market; today most are un/underemployed and/or
work in unskilled jobs or are retired. Volunteering helps them to fill in the void left
by their occupational downgrading and find meaningful venues for self-actualiza-
tion. After getting involved in voluntary work, they typically moved from one
project to the next, with the average of 8 years of volunteering experience. Higher
participation of educated, middle-class women in voluntary work has also been
noted in other studies (Musick and Wilson 2008).
While most informants had been involved in communal activities in their Soviet
past, they did not construe them as either truly voluntary or useful. By contrast, in
Israel their personal inclination for communal involvement and altruism found more
meaningful outlets, adding to the feelings of self-efficacy and belonging. The results
indicate that most informants chose to volunteer for the intra-community causes
helping fellow Russian immigrants build communal institutions and solve
individual problems. Only a minority chose to volunteer for mainstream Israeli
organizations that extended support to all citizens regardless of their ethnicity or
tenure in the country. Thus, the chief gradient of the immigrant volunteering was
directed toward bonding social capital rather than intercultural bridging to other
population segments. In this sense, ex-Soviet immigrants were similar to other
immigrant volunteers in the US/Canada (Guo 2014; Handy and Greenspan 2009;
Lee and Moon 2011) and Europe (Voicu and Şerban 2012). The informants were
aware of the selective nature of their volunteering and perceived their drive for self-
help efforts within the Russian community as natural due to their minimal social
involvement with the mainstream Israeli society and poor command of Hebrew.
Yet, quite a few informants were willing to participate in the mainstream voluntary
projects (targeting domestic violence, troubled youths, lone soldiers, etc.) but had no
clue about how to join them. This may point to a large untapped potential for
expanding the involvement of Russian immigrants in national volunteer networks,
in response to active outreach on the part of national NGOs.
Although typical volunteers chose to work for the community causes, their
activity often required reaching out to various local and national bodies—
municipalities, housing and social welfare authorities, and even the national
legislature, the Knesset. This pushed them to improve their Hebrew proficiency,
learn about Israeli legal system and meet native Israelis in national NGOs and
government services (e.g., Tania who helped overhaul public housing lease
contracts and presented her drafts in the Knesset). Thus even the tasks initially
catering for the bonding social capital could later on entail intercultural commu-
nication and foster social learning and institutional empowerment for the immigrant
volunteers. In the process, they learned ‘‘how to swim in the turbulent waters’’ of the
new society and assert their own rights and entitlements as its citizens.
Their personal empowerment often hinged on the fact that they were helping
others (rather than being a traditional object of help by native Israelis), both co-
ethnics and not, including Arab Israelis, Ethiopians, and other social groups
construed in the local discourse as dispossessed or problematic. The outreach to
ultimate ‘Others’ (especially Muslim Arabs) via voluntary work targeting women’s
health, domestic violence and other universal social issues was interpreted by some

123
Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357 353

informants as an expansion of their psychological freedom, severing old prejudice

and fears, and becoming better persons in the new country. Our findings suggest that
for many immigrant volunteers, the motives for contributing their time and effort to
various social causes evolved over time from necessity and/or self-interest (typical
for Soviet-type community engagements) to more idealistic and altruistic motives
common for most native and veteran Israeli volunteers. To quote one informant,
‘‘My goal is to make this country a better place.’’
On the theory level, this research fosters better understanding of how
human/social capital may mediate the ties between voluntary activities and
immigrant integration (Giacomo 2009). Our findings indicate that human capital
often serves as a driving force of volunteering: ex-Soviet immigrants endowed with
high human capital were seeking voluntary involvement in Israel in order to realize
their skills and experiences rejected by the local labor market. Thus, our findings
reinforce the reports by Slade et al. (2013) about the need ‘‘to put their skills and
experience into use’’ as one of the major motives of immigrant volunteering. At the
same time, immigrant volunteers played an instrumental role in creating and
cementing a stronger co-ethnic community in the new country. Their common
experiences as immigrants motivated them to initiate collective actions and foster
mutual support in overcoming barriers and seeking equality with the established
citizens. Thus, our findings emphasize the salience of solidarity as a promoter of
volunteering and choice of its target groups (Wilson 2012). These were the groups
to which our informants directly belonged (other ex-Soviet immigrants); broader
groups in the Israeli society (the women or the elderly) or the external group they
wanted to support (IDF soldiers).
Our findings expose volunteering as a resource effectively used by immigrants to
enhance their involvement with the host society and therefore a possible venue
leading to social integration. In the earlier studies, volunteering typically emerged
as a result of integration: thus, Voicu and Voicu (2009) showed the growing levels
of immigrants’ voluntary participation with longer time since arrival, gradually
narrowing the gap between them and the locals. They interpreted this as a sign of
immigrants’ gradual re-socialization and adoption of the local civic culture. Our
findings shed a new light on this trend: all our informants turned to voluntary work
soon after migration, while still experiencing multiple difficulties of insertion in the
new society, feeling isolated and disoriented, and undergoing the crisis of their
professional identity. This suggests an alternative temporal relationship: while for
some immigrants joining volunteer networks may be an outcome of successful
integration, for others it can serve as a strategy or a path leading to gradual social
inclusion.
Of a special interest is the division between formal and informal volunteering
venues among the immigrants. Some authors discount informal (self-initiated)
voluntary activities (Cnaan et al. 1996; Snyder and Omoto 2008), thus ignoring the
bulk of these projects on the ground. Our study provides multiple examples of how
immigrants created their own voluntary workplace while not being members of any
existing organizations and often unaware of their existence. An individual initiative,
a home-based group of kin spirits often served as a beginning of a club, a library, a
veteran association. Gradually these private, small-scale initiatives got larger,

123
354 Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357

acquired institutional framing, and were registered with local authorities. The
process of accumulation of bonding social capital was transformed into community
building. This phenomenon of immigrant social entrepreneurial activities, with
subsequent partial or full institutionalization, and the role of this process in the
formation of immigrant communities deserve further in-depth study. This dynamic
is especially curious regarding ex-Soviet immigrants of the 1990s who arrived in
Israel with minor (if any) entrepreneurial or community-building experiences and
had to start from scratch.
Since finding suitable jobs is a key to subsequent social integration of adult
immigrants (Remennick 2012), the role of volunteering in the labor market entry is
another salient aspect of our findings. Voluntary activity served two related goals
for our informants. For one, it compensated for the lack of proper professional
opportunity; it is hardly accidental that most informants called it ‘‘work,’’ rather
than a form of leisure, charity, or civic duty. Interestingly, in most cases, they spoke
about an additional work or job because all informants were gainfully employed at
the time they turned to volunteering. However, their work lives were clearly split
into two parallel worlds—official (usually in manual or technical jobs unrelated to
their former experience) that these immigrants needed for income and medical
insurance, and voluntary work that satisfied their higher intellectual and spiritual
needs in self-actualization, communication, and personal development. A by-
product of these voluntary activities was the adjustment to Israeli labor market,
learning about new occupational venues, and eventually crafting a new professional
niche for themselves, often in the domain of social services. Thus, the leaders of
grassroots community groups became social and youth workers, voluntary
librarians—book store managers, etc. The parallel worlds of immigrant home-
based, inwardly oriented initiatives were ultimately mainstreamed and often led to a
genuine occupational integration. This finding makes one wonder if volunteering
can pave the way to the labor market also to other kinds of unemployed skilled
workers.
The experiences of former Soviet immigrants with volunteering explored in this
study apparently differ from those of the immigrants from Asian and African
countries in the west (Wang and Handy 2014). The latter had either no exposure to
voluntary work for common good or understood it as communal duty or religious
obligation (Ecklund and Park 2007). Ex-Soviets had arrived to their adopted
countries with established negative attitudes toward forced collectivism and
ritualized, top-down volunteerism. Their adoption of the new volunteering ethos
required overcoming mistrust and skepticism, a will to find a new meaning and
purpose by devoting their few hours of leisure to common good. Civic apathy and
mistrust are still typical of most post-communist subjects (Uhlin 2006; Voicu and
Voicu 2009) and it tends to be transmitted also to their children (Zychlinski and
Kagan 2014). Given their pragmatic outlook, probably the best way to attract the
passive majority of ex-Soviet immigrants to volunteering is to convince them of
multiple indirect benefits it entails for their future employment prospects, social
networking, and general social integration. Our findings show that, at least for some
immigrants, volunteering can provide a valid path for social insertion and a sense of
empowerment in the new country. If the host society and its established

123
Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357 355

volunteering networks stop seeing recent immigrants solely as recipients of aid and
seek to embrace and engage them on equal terms with the locals, the ranks of
volunteers may well be expanded much beyond their current modest levels.

Acknowledgments This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public,
commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

References

Ager, A., & Strang, A. (2008). Understanding integration: A conceptual framework. Journal of Refugee
Studies, 21(2), 166–191.
Aleksynska, M. (2011). Civic participation of immigrants in Europe: Assimilation, origin, and destination
country effects. European Journal of Political Economy, 27, 566–585.
Baines, S., & Hardill, I. (2008). ‘‘At least I can do something’’: The Work of Volunteering in a
Community Beset by Worklessness. Social Policy and Society, 7, 307–317.
Boyle, M., & Sawyer, J. (2010). Defining Volunteering for Community Campaigns: An exploration of
race, self-perceptions, and campaign practices. Journal of Community Practice, 18, 40–57.
Brown, S., Nesse, R., Vinokur, A., & Smith, D. (2003). Providing social support may be more beneficial
than receiving it. Psychological Science, 14, 320–324.
Central Bureau of Statistics. (2014). Statistical abstract of Israel, 65. Jerusalem: Government Publishing
Office.
Cleave, S. L. & Doherty, A (2005). Understanding volunteer and non-volunteer constraints: mixed-
method approach. Presented at the 11th Canadian Congress on LeisureResearch, May 17–20, 2005
Nanaimo, BC.
Cnaan, R. A., Handy, F., & Wadsworth, M. (1996). Defining who is a volunteer: Conceptual and
empirical considerations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 25(3), 364–383.
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches.
Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Ecklund, E. H. (2005). ‘‘Us’’ and ‘‘them:’’ The role of religion in mediating and challenging the ‘‘model
minority’’ and other civic boundaries. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28, 132–150.
Ecklund, E. H., & Park, J. Z. (2007). Religious diversity and community volunteerism among Asian
Americans. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 46, 233–244.
Elias, N., & Khvorostianov, N. (2007). Russian cultural institutions in Beer-Sheva: Building a
community. Sociological Papers, 12, 47–61.
Fletcher, F., Campbell, B., & Fast, J. (2007). Immigrant women…Why volunteer?. Toronto: Imagine
Canada.
Giacomo, D. A. (2009). Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivations to volunteer and social capital formation.
Kyklos, 62, 359–370.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative
research. Chicago: Aldine de Gruyter.
Guo, S. (2014). Immigrants as active citizens: Exploring the volunteering experience of Chinese
immigrants in Vancouver. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 12, 51–70.
Hall, M., Lasby, D., Ayer, S., & Gibbons, W. (2009). Caring Canadians, involved Canadians: Highlights
from the 2007 Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating. Ottawa: Statistics Canada.
Handy, F., & Greenspan, I. (2009). Immigrant volunteering: A stepping stone to integration? Nonprofit
and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 38, 956–982.
Jaffe, E., & Sasson, U. (2014). First generation immigrant adolescents’ motives to volunteer. Modern
Management: Science & Engineering, 2, 10–18.

123
356 Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357

Kimmerling, B. (2001). The invention and decline of Israeliness: State, society, and the military.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ksienski, H. (2004). Enhancing volunteer participation with the ethno-cultural community. Calgary:
Muttart Foundation.
Lee, Y., & Moon, S. G. (2011). Mainstream and ethnic volunteering by Korean immigrants in the United
States. VOLUNTAS, 22, 811–830.
Leitch, D. (1997). Society in motion: Russia’s emerging voluntary sector. Nonprofit Management and
Leadership, 7, 421–433.
Lemish, D. (2000). The whore and the other: Israeli images of female immigrants from the former USSR.
Gender & Society, 14, 333–349.
Leshem, E. (2009). Integration of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel 1990–2005:
Interdisciplinary infrastructure research. Jerusalem: Masad Klita. (Hebrew).
Levy, S. (2009). Trends in Jewish identity in Israeli society: Effects of former Soviet Union immigration.
Contemporary Jewry, 29, 153–168.
Livingstone, D.W., Myles, J., Doray, P., Hubich, L., & Collins, M. (2004). National Survey of Learning
and Work. Retrieved May 18, 2015 from http://wall.oise.utoronto.ca/research/research_teams.htm.
Musick, M., & Wilson, J. (2008). Volunteers: A social profile. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Penner, L. A., Dovidio, J. F., Piliavin, J. A., & Schroeder, D. A. (2005). Prosocial behavior: Multilevel
perspectives. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 365–392.
Philippov, M. (2010). Ex-Soviets in the Israeli political space: Values, attitudes, and electoral behavior.
Jerusalem: Institute of Israel Studies.
Powell, S. (2010). Understanding volunteerism for development in South-Eastern Europe and the
commonwealth of independent states: Lessons for expansion: Summary report. Bratislava: UNV.
Prashizky, A., & Remennick, L. (2015). Cultural capital in migration: Fishka association of young
Russian-speaking adults in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 36, 17–34.
Putnam, R. D. (2007). E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and community in the twenty-first century. The 2006
Johan Skytte Prize Lecture. Scandinavian Political Studies, 30, 137–174.
Remennick, L. (2007). Russian Jews on three continents: Identity, integration, and conflict. New
Brunswick: Transaction.
Remennick, L. (2012). Professional identities in transit: Factors shaping immigrant labor market success.
International Migration, 2013(51), 152–168.
Ruiter, S., & De Graaf, N. D. (2006). National context, religiosity, and volunteering: Results from 53
countries. American Sociological Review, 717, 191–210.
Scott, K., Selbee, K., & Reed, P. (2005). Making connections: Social and civic engagement among
Canadian immigrants. Retrieved May, 18, 2015 from http://volunteer.ca/content/making-
connections.
Sharon, N. (1996). Formal and informal support arrangements in Israeli absorption of immigrants from
the former Soviet Union. Journal of Jewish Communal Service, 72, 237–243.
Shavit, Z., Sasson-Levi, O., & Ben-Porat, G. (Eds.). (2014). Boundaries, identities and changing
categories in Israelis society. Jerusalem: Van-Leer (Hebrew).
Slade, B., Luo, Y. C., & Schugurensky, D. (2013). The Experiences of immigrants who volunteer to
access the labour market: Pushing the boundaries of ‘‘volunteerism’’. In F. Duguid, K. Mündel, & D.
Schugurensky (Eds.), Volunteer work, informal learning and social action (pp. 101–114).
Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Snyder, M., & Omoto, A. (2008). Volunteerism: Social Issues, perspectives and social policy
implications. Social Issues and Policy Review, 2, 1–36.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and
techniques. Newbury Park: Sage Publications Inc.
Sundeen, R., Garcia, C., & Wang, L. (2007). Volunteer behavior among Asian American groups in the
United States. Journal of Asian American Studies, 10, 243–282.
The Public Opinion Foundation. (2014). Actors of volunteering. (Russian). Retrieved January, 10, 2016
from http://fom.ru/TSennosti/11663.
Thomas, D. (2011). Personal networks and the economic adjustments of immigrants. Canadian Social
Trends, 92, 54-61. Retrieved May, 18, 2015 from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2011002/
article/11592-eng.pdf.
Uhlin, A. (2006). Post-Soviet civil society democratization in Russia and the Baltic states. New York:
Routledge.

123
Voluntas (2017) 28:335–357 357

Voicu, B. (2014). Participative immigrants or participative cultures? The importance of cultural heritage
in determining involvement in associations. VOLUNTAS, 25, 612–635.
Voicu, B., & Şerban, M. (2012). Immigrant participation in voluntary associations across Europe. Journal
of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 38, 1569–1587.
Voicu, B., & Voicu, M. (2009). Volunteers and volunteering in Central and Eastern Europe. Slovak
Journal of Sociology, 41, 539–563.
Wang, L., & Handy, F. (2014). Religious and secular voluntary participation by immigrants in Canada:
How trust and social networks affect decision to participate. VOLUNTAS, 25, 1559–1582.
Wilson, J. (2012). Volunteerism research: A review essay. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 41,
176–212.
Zychlinski, E., & Kagan, M. (2014). Twenty years later: Volunteering and its motivation amongst FSU
immigrants and native-born Israelis. Retrieved from http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.istr.org/
resource/resmgr/MunsterAbstracts/Zychlinski,_EsterNEW.pdf.

123