Suchergebnisse

'Voluntary returns' for rejected asylum seekers, foreign national prisoners, illegal entrants and overstayers are increasingly being promoted by European governments without due regard for the safety and preparedness of the returnee. In addition, the voluntariness of such returns has to be questioned. Among the UK schemes examined here are the Voluntary Assisted Return and Reintegration Programme (VARRP), Assisted Voluntary Return of Irregular Migrants (AVRIM), Assisted Voluntary Return for Families and Children (AVRFC), the Facilitated Returns Scheme (FRS) and the now discontinued 'Explore and Prepare' schemes.

The voluntary sector is an increasingly important component of our system of welfare provision. This paper focuses on voluntary leaders of welfare agencies in the voluntary sector; the chairpersons of governing bodies. It draws on a study carried out in an outer metropolitan borough with a socially mixed population. The characteristics of chairpersons and the background to their involvement are described. It appears that most are drawn in to their agencies and in to the role of chairperson more by chance than through positive commitment to a cause, but that, once in post, they rise rapidly to the challenge. Leadership of the local voluntary sector is found to be part of a wider commitment to community benefit and to collective provision of welfare. Some implications of the findings for the development of voluntary sector welfare agencies and for social policy are discussed.

Etzioni describes voluntary simplifiers (VS) as people who choose, 'out of free will - rather than by being coerced by poverty, government austerity programs, or being imprisoned - to limit expenditures on consumer goods and services, and to cultivate non-materialistic sources of satisfaction and meaning' (1998:620). Although there are many different definitions of voluntary simplicity (Johnston & Burton, 2003), this definition is useful because it includes the three major elements that set this movement apart from others: free will; limiting consumerism; and alternative sources of satisfaction.