European University Institute Library

Volunteering abroad in Poland and Germany, its implications on attitudes towards the respective neighbouring country, and its effects on images of Europe, Sabine Kakuie, Silke Marzluff, Filip Pazderski

eng

Involvement in international voluntary service has an impact on the image of the other country, and its influences on volunteers' thoughts and attitudes about Europe and the European Union are often a declared but rarely evaluated effect of such programmes. Research on Poles and Germans doing long-term volunteering service in the neighbouring country in 2013 shows that besides personal development regarding social competencies in general and the contribution towards career orientation, young people learn a lot about the the hosting country through such service, counteracting possessed stereotypes, including ones related to the difficult shared history of both countries. Moreover, volunteering impact on the image modification of the neighbouring country is also wider, reaching the volunteers' peers and families at home, as well as members of the receiving society encountered during the service. Volunteers from both countrues, due to living in a foreign country and in an international environment, also learn what it means to be a member of a diversifiede European community and how its values are unique from other parts of the world. In addition, they also learn what about the obstacles governing such culturally diversified societies that might be related for Europe. The positive aspects of voluntary service within the context of the neighbouring countries can still be extended due to modifications that might be taken ub by decision-makers on a European and national level who shape the set-up of volunteer programmes as well as practitioners in sending or hosting organisations in Poland and Germany. However, these recommendations might be also interesting for people involved in trans-border volunteering in the context of other countries

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non fiction

Volunteering abroad in Poland and Germany, its implications on attitudes towards the respective neighbouring country, and its effects on images of Europe

electronic resource

dictionaries

1088472826

Sabine Kakuie, Silke Marzluff, Filip Pazderski

Analyses & opinions, no. 21 (142), 2014