Formal volunteering of Russian-speaking foreigners in the Czech Republic and their experience of involvement with the local community

This diploma thesis deals with the connection between formal volunteering and integration from the perspective of Russian speaking immigrants, in the context of civil society organizations in Czech Republic. I have monitored the motives and benefits of volunteering perceived by Russian-speaking immigrants in relation to their own integration through in-depth semi-structured interviews. There were three main aspects relating to volunteering which I've pursued: the perspective of immigrants' employability, the emergence and development of social relations and civic engagement. The results of the study show a more complex impact of volunteering on the social integration of foreigners. It presents a deeper understanding of Czech culture and a better orientation in the Czech institutional system, in addition to better job opportunities and benefits for social networks. Among other things, foreigners could understand their own volunteering in the sense of civic engagement when volunteers want to help their less integrated fellow citizens or strengthen their own language communities. In addition to this, volunteering in a non-for-profit non-governmental organization provides foreigners with the opportunity to show their own culture and thus to disrupt the stereotypes about the culture that have arisen..