Internal migrants’ social integration through community volunteering during the pandemic in China

Abstract The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has exacerbated vulnerabilities among migrants, potentially hampering their integration into host societies. Employing the concepts of bonding, bridging, and linking social capital, we aimed to understand the perceived social integration of internal migrants who volunteered during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. We conducted semi-structured interviews with twenty-eight migrant volunteers and participant observation of migrants’ daily volunteering in late 2022. We found that bonding social capital within the migrant group was enhanced by daily mutual help and the reinforced sense of community. Volunteering during the pandemic offered migrants opportunities to engage in neighboring, thereby contributing to the enhancement of bonding social capital. The feeling of being cared for by the migrant community and local government was crucial for migrants’ sense of community during the pandemic. The perceived social exclusion limited migrant volunteers from establishing bridging social capital. Migrant volunteers relied on linking social capital via the migrant leader, which might imply a lack of individual linking social capital of migrants. To conclude, through community volunteering during the pandemic, the migrants seem to become more close-knit, which may reinforce their sense of community rather than facilitate social integration into the receiving society. These findings are also intertwined with the relatively lower socio-economic status of migrants in urban areas.