Northern Lights Instead of Workers’ Rights: Volunteer Working Tourists in Finnish Lapland

Rethinking the Role of Volunteering in the Labor Market Inclusion of Migrants

“…As noted by Allan (2019), unemployed and underemployed migrants have also been found to struggle to present volunteer work as valuable “work experience” in curriculum vitae (CVs) and LinkedIn profiles. Furthermore, because volunteers are not formally employed, they are not entitled to legal rights and protections in the workplace, which can put them in a precarious position (Brennan, 2018).…”

“…Across the literature, the role that volunteering can play to overcome some of the barriers that migrants face in their inclusion into the labor market is well documented: Volunteering is found to have an important part in the inclusion of migrants through the development of social capital, the acquisition of skills and experience, the acquisition of languages, the improvement of health and well-being and by providing opportunities to learn about the way of life in the host country, including customs, norms, and habits (Calò et al, 2021; Dudley, 2007; Guo, 2014; Handy & Greenspan, 2009; Khvorostianov & Remennick, 2017). However, volunteering also has its downsides such as the undervaluing of skills, disempowerment, and precarity (Bauder, 2003; Brennan, 2018; Maury, 2019; Overgaard, 2019), which are less well documented and are less of a focus at the policy level. In this study, we engage in the debate of what role volunteering could and should have in the integration of migrants, particularly in the labor market.…”

Progress in volunteer tourism research: From niche tourism curiosity to experience-based improvements

“…These are often raised when discussing actions on behalf of someone else's benefit that are not remunerated with money, but are called "volunteering" (McIntosh & Bonnemann, 2006;Vercammen et al, 2020). Tourists' involvement in volunteering experiences abroad has been the subject of research demonstrating the blurred boundaries of volunteering with unpaid (Kelemen et al, 2017) or precarious work (Brennan, 2018). This uncertainty is strongly linked to the question of what is actually considered "work" in modern society (Kelemen et al, 2017) and how risky the promise of authentic experience might be for the quality of the labour market, taking into consideration the free work supply (Brennan, 2018).…”

Accounting for Chocolate in the Dominican Republic: A Case Study in Volunteer Working Tourism

“…Unlike the first two categories, those on working holidays view the work as an integral part of their vacation experience. The working holiday category can be further divided into volunteer tourism (or Voluntourism) 1 (Wearing, 2001) and volunteer working tourist (Brennan, 2018).…”