Op-Ed: Newcomers’ volunteer work quickly becoming exploitation in Canada

Canada is grappling with rising anti-immigrant sentiment. At the same time, newcomers to Canada are looking to meet their basic needs—housing, food, employment—and to find community in their new home.

This tension and the complexity of the immigration landscape are front and centre for volunteer centres like Volunteer Toronto. One ironic example is the increase in anti-immigration groups applying to recruit volunteers through our website, yet half of all current volunteer seekers in Toronto are newcomers. That’s a 17 per cent increase from 2023.

Our diverse social sector—and the voluntary sector in particular—is experiencing outsized impacts from Canada’s immigration plans and recent surges of refugee claimants. What were anticipated ripple effects from immigration targets have now become full-on waves that won’t slow in the medium term despite recent immigration reductions.

Newcomers are told to volunteer

Newcomers often contact volunteer centres like ours within days of arrival after being told that volunteering is a direct path to employment and social integration. 

This has never been true.

Historically, volunteer centres have played a vital role in settlement by increasing access points to secure volunteer roles that meet newcomers’ goals. But now, we find ourselves bridging diverse cultural understandings about labour, compensation, and civic participation for newcomers—a level of settlement support that goes beyond what we’ve provided before.

Let’s state a truth: volunteerism is great for gaining social assets, like a network; and human assets, like a new skill. These are helpful on the path to paid labour, especially for those without other access points. 

But volunteerism is not a direct path to paid work – and that’s the message we’ve been giving to newcomers.

Here’s a recent Toronto Star story about a newcomer who worked unpaid as a teacher because their international credentials were not recognized. Unpaid internships reflect privilege – and the same holds true for volunteerism. 

Encouraging newcomer participation in unpaid labour when the basic needs of food and shelter are not met is not just misguided; it’s cruel.

Yet still, this is a path our governments outline for newcomer access to the labour market in the name of ‘gaining Canadian work experience’.

Newcomers struggle with equitable access to paid and unpaid work

For years, Volunteer Toronto has stopped naming ‘gaining Canadian experience’ as a benefit of volunteering. We’ve questioned the validity of the ‘Canadian’ context of volunteering that qualifies newcomers for paid work, and the ways Canada relies on unpaid labour to fulfill essential services when we really shouldn’t.

The idea that newcomers must first gain Canadian experience through unpaid labour to access employment is steeped in discrimination, xenophobia and exploitation. 

Like the newcomer teacher in the Star, many newcomers arrive in Canada with multiple degrees and years of work experience – their acceptance to Canada requires it. Still, when they arrive, they are unable to access the professions they are trained for and are instead told to work for free, often at a time when many simply cannot afford it. 

For those who can bear the cost, the system is still rigged—the non-profit sector is unprepared to engage vulnerable newcomers in decent and meaningful ways. 

For example, in a recent facilitated discussion, Volunteer Toronto heard a troubling mindset among non-profit volunteer managers: it’s ‘too hard’ to engage potential volunteers who don’t speak fluent English or who can’t easily navigate onerous screening steps. This attitude is unacceptable, and we will not affirm these ideas.

Civic participation should not be reserved for ‘easy volunteers’ who can navigate an opaque volunteer management system and are unaffected by discriminatory practices. While non-profits continue to report volunteer engagement challenges, many fail to acknowledge their role in contributing to this ‘crisis.’ 

Years of dis-investment in equitable volunteer programs and the promotion of exploitation through unpaid labour have led many people, including newcomers, to reject or be harmed by volunteerism in this form. A modernization of volunteer engagement is the only way to reverse these effects.

Reframing the value of volunteering

At Volunteer Toronto, we try to honour the reciprocal relationship between volunteers and non-profits.

We cannot ignore the reality that volunteering is often a serious exchange for newcomers. The same goes for service-user volunteers who may consider volunteering a necessary part of accessing basic needs – like food at a food bank. 

We must acknowledge that the spectrum of labour, from paid to unpaid, is steeped in power dynamics where racialized communities and low-income persons are most vulnerable and may work unpaid as an access point to meeting essential needs. 

For newcomers, we must confront and challenge the message that volunteering is a guaranteed path to paid employment.

Weaponizing the idea of ‘Canadian experience’ to extract free and cheap labour perpetuates a system that harms vulnerable communities. And ultimately, it harms Canadian society.

 Right now, many newcomers’ first experiences of civic participation are marked by rejection, discrimination and exploitation. These negative experiences will have lasting impacts on future civic participation, including voting and civic leadership. That is a loss for Canada.

A Call to Action

International Volunteer Day – Dec. 5—is a timely reminder that volunteering and civic participation are global experiences. As we celebrate the immense work of volunteers on this day, we invite non-profit leaders to consider how their volunteer programs are creating barriers that keep newcomers (and others) out instead of inviting them in. Volunteer shortages will continue if we fail to prioritize the modernization of volunteer engagement.

Volunteer Toronto invites you to join us for a conversation on what Decent Volunteerism means for your organization on Jan. 21, 2025.