Abstract
Though scholars have long investigated processes of securitization of migrant and minority communities, less is known about its twin process: de-securitization. Indeed, such a process has been mostly debated on the theoretical level; fewer studies looked at how de-securitization of migration and minorities unfolds in reality and how to translate the concept in measures and practices. This paper tries to fill this gap, combining the field of (de)securitization, with contact theory and scholarship on volunteering. Contact theorists highlight how positive contacts can have a healthy impact towards individuals’ perception of the rest of the society. Meanwhile research on volunteering has shown the positive effects that it has on single individuals and the society, fostering social, cultural and human capitals and processes of integration and empowerment.
The paper has a twofold goal. First it discusses from a theoretical point of view the concept of de-securitization and whether and how micro-experience and positive contacts in the context of volunteering might contribute to processes of de-securitization of perceived threatened “others.” Second, it presents hints from interviews and surveys with young adult volunteers with and without migrant background on how volunteering experience affected their intercultural understanding and relations. The data will be used to suggest how to operationalize volunteering as a practice of de-securitization. Overall, as securitization might fail without public acceptance, I argue for the need to address de-securitization processes starting from the public perspectives, looking at specific individual experience in their daily life (volunteering) and how it affects people’s perceptions of “others.”