Social work with refugee and displaced populations in Europe: (dis)continuities, dilemmas, developments (original) (raw)
Related papers
European Journal of Social Work, 2020
Social work with displaced people has an extended background in the history of the profession. Yet, it has taken different forms and remits over time, parallel to the evolving legal and political definition of refugee themselves. Inside Europe, in particular, social work with forced migrants has gained new visibility and increasing complexity after the so-called refugee crisis. Aspects like people’s limited visibility and eligibility towards formal welfare services, their uncertain legal status, their temporal “liminality” and their non-linear patterns of mobility have all major consequences for social work practice, research and education. In discussing them, we highlight the need to invest in students’ (and practitioners’) reflexivity, given both the complexity of building up trust based relationships with forcibly displaced people, and the risk of cultivating essentialized, stigmatizing or nativist representations about them. In all of these respects, our introduction provides a conceptual basis for this Special Issue of EJSW, and for the broader debate in social work across Europe.
Social Work With Migrants and Refugees
Advances in Social Work
This special issue of Advances in Social Work focuses on current challenges and best practices with migrants and refugees, in an increasingly difficult global context. Over the past decade, forced migration and displacement reached record numbers, while complex geopolitical, economic, and environmental factors contributed to escalating current challenges. International human rights and migration laws provide a framework too narrow and too limited for these recent developments. Political pressure and a growing identity crisis add to the xenophobia and climate of fear, in which security has in some cases become the primary rationale underpinning rapidly changing migration policies. Social work as a profession – in education and practice – has an important (if largely unfulfilled) role to play in advancing the human rights of migrants and refugees. In this commentary, we outline the macro contexts that shape social work practice with migrants and refugees, highlighting the great potent...
Practice, 2019
In recent years, the numbers of refugees and migrants moving across borders has been unprecedented, with more than 68.5 million people around the world leaving their countries as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations. Their journeys are perilous, crossing dangerous waters, often leading to death of family members. Upon arrival in Europe they continue to struggle, often living in detention-like conditions, unable to access basic protection and being vulnerable to traffickers. Most European governments offer emergency relief, without a common framework for legal protection or a clear vision of what statutory social services should provide. Like many other European countries, in the UK, designated social services are also limited and formal efforts to support refugees arriving in the UK remain uncoordinated, mostly provided by volunteers and non-governmental organisations. Drawing on the theoretical framework of social movements, this article offers a critique to current social work practices for refugees in the UK. Using the case of resettlement policies, it argues that sustainable social services to protect this vulnerable group could develop through the political opportunity structures created by non-governmental organisations. It concludes that community mobilisation can influence social work practice to better support the refugees.
Journal of Human Rights and Social Work
This article explores the conditions of globally displaced older refugees and outlines the implications for social work as a human rights profession. The study is based on a literature review and two current case examples of globally displaced older refugees facing long-term structural discrimination and human rights violation: older Rohingyas at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border and older Palestinians at the Israel-Gaza and Lebanon borders. The authors suggest that social workers as ‘front-line human rights workers’ are uniquely placed to identify needs, and take actionable steps to support and advocate for the human rights of older displaced refugees. It is argued that global social work ethics and principles of social justice and human rights should underpin social work practices that engage people and structures in order to address life challenges and enhance the well-being of displaced older refugees in war zones, at borders and in refugee camps. Future research and welfare project...
Recognising forced migrants in transnational social work
International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care
Purpose Nation states’ neoliberal policies do not regard asylum seekers and undocumented migrants as deserving of a good life. Social work in welfare states is highly connected to the policies of nation states. There is a need to address theories in social work that have a transnational focus at the local level. Axel Honneth’s recognition theory enables an approach to forced migration from the direction of personal relations and personhood itself. The core idea is that if people cannot gain recognition, this causes harm to their self-realisation. The purpose of this paper is discuss how the recognition theory overcomes a national focus in social work. Design/methodology/approach This paper is theoretical. The relations of recognition are discussed in the context of transnational social work in welfare states with forced migrants. Findings The theory of recognition in social work practice with people who do not have a residence permit is best articulated by an understanding of rights...
Social Policy Review 34: Analysis and Debate in Social Policy, 2022, 2022
The acceleration of global warming and climate change (IPCC, 2021), alongside democratic decay and the escalation of authoritarianism worldwide (Daly, 2020), the COVID-19 global pandemic (WHO, 2021a), a rise in global inequality and extreme poverty (United Nations, 2020), economic and humanitarian crises affecting the safety and wellbeing of large groups of people (Save the Children, 2021), followed by the return of fascism and violent extremism in Europe and elsewhere (Coolsaet, 2017; Le Roux, 2019): all might be indicative that we may be living in an ‘Era of Emergencies’ (Celermajer and Nassar, 2020; Lopez, 2020). Contrary to what liberal internationalists preached at the end of the Second World War, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights did not pave the way for ‘a world made new’ (Glendon, 2002). In fact, we are facing problems similar to those of past generations, if not worse ones. The recent calls for hope in human rights activism in the twenty-first century (Sikkink, 2017) is contrasted with other far from hopeful empirical analyses that indicate that human civilisation and the economic growth-based world we live in might collapse in the near future (Spratt and Dunlop, 2019; Branderhorst, 2020; Helmore, 2021). Extreme events such as pandemics, climate change and economic crises are all drivers of migration, either internally or transnationally. On top of these socio-environmental emergencies, vulnerable migrants often need to deal with institutional or structural violence (Artero and Fontanari, 2019), rights violations on a daily basis (Riley et al, 2020; Oxfam International, 2021), social welfare exclusion (Vintila and Lafleur, 2020), and the enduring effects of colonisation, racism and inequality (Adeyanju and Oriola, 2011). Every human being will experience some level of vulnerability throughout their lives, however, there are particular groups in society who are more vulnerable than others to abuse and/or human rights violations: for various reasons, they were historically put in weak and vulnerable positions and therefore require special protective measures. Legal protection of vulnerable groups has become a crucial component of human rights law (Nifosi- Sutton, 2017), for example. Equally, for the fields of health and social care, vulnerability has been a key concept in defining intervention strategies (Gitterman, 2001; Larkin, 2009).
Comparative social work practices with young refugee and asylum seeker: the European experiences
European Journal of Social Work, 2020
Despite the increased interest in improving the wellbeing of youth refugees and asylum-seekers, studies examining the links between social work practices in the recipient countries, the migration context, and the diverse needs of youth refugees, are limited. This paper builds a comparative perspective of youth social work policy, practices, and engagement related to young refugees in Finland, the United Kingdom, Malta, Italy, and Serbia. We solicited 48 good practices in youth social work, identified the central themes of social work practices, and linked them to each country's migration context and social work policy. We found that the majority of youth programmes were carried out by NGOs at national level, except in Finland, where support from public institutions was significant. Social work practices in the arrival and first transit-point countries such as Malta, Italy, and Serbia, emphasise support on socioeconomic empowerment. In the main destination countries like Finland and the UK, the artistic and social initiatives as well as person-centered support services were more dominant. One common theme is found, that many of the programmes aimed to create a safe space for the refugees and sense of belongingness through the inclusion with in the communities they currently live in. ABSTRAKTI Huolimatta kasvavasta mielenkiinnosta nuorten pakolaisten ja turvapaikanhakijoiden hyvinvoinnin parantamiseen, vastaanottajamaiden sosiaalityön käytäntöjen ja maahanmuuttokysymysten sekä nuorten pakolaisten erilaisten tarpeiden välisiä yhteyksiä käsitteleviä tutkimuksia on julkaistu toistaiseksi vähän. Tässä artikkelissa vertaillaan nuoriin pakolaisiin kohdistettuja sosiaalipolitiikan keinoja ja käytäntöjä Suomessa, Isossa-Britanniassa, Maltalla, Italiassa ja Serbiassa. PAPYRUS-hankkeessa tunnistettiin 48 hyvää käytäntöä, jotka analysoimme etsien niiden keskeisiä teemoja. Löydettyjä neljää keskeistä teemaa tarkasteltiin suhteessa kunkin vastaanottajamaan maahanmuuton erityiskysymyksiin ja sosiaalityön painopisteisiin. Tulokset osoittavat, että valtaosan nuoriin pakolaisiin kohdistetuista ohjelmista toteuttivat kansalaisjärjestöt. Tutkimukseen osallistuneista maista ainoastaan Suomessa julkisella sektorilla oli merkittävä rooli. Sosiaalityön käytännöissä ensisijaisissa saapumis-ja
The landscape for social work is continually changing and working with asylum seekers remains a highly charged and contested area of practice. This paper compares the role of social workers working with asylum seekers in statutory and voluntary-sector settings in the UK. Institutional practices suggest a divide between statutory settings and charitable organisations. However, based on empirical qualitative research and in-depth interviews with thirty-four social workers in Scotland and the southeast of England that explored dominant discourses influencing their practice, we suggest considerable similarities in the different sectors. Austerity measures for local authorities (LA) and voluntary agencies have resulted in the closure of specialist teams and reduced funding for social workers. Findings highlight politicised dominant narratives when working with asylum seekers and we argue for alternatives that promote a more nuanced perspective of entitlement and human rights.
Refugee as a human displacement has gained greater worrisome prominence in the internationaldiscourse as the number of refugees and internally displaced persons in the today's world continues to rise with newer experiences and challenges. At the local and international levels, people have been forced to flee as a result of natural and man-made factors. The objectives of this research were: to review and analyze the knowledge and thinking about refugees and displaced persons through existing research and experience , to highlight the reasons for this mass movement of people , to look at the plight of these refugees , suggest that social workers can do to ameliorate the plight of refugees and recommend strategies for mitigating migration generally as guide for future work and implementation for refugee services.The methodology adopted in the research includes, structured interview,literature review and analysis and focused group discussion (FGD). The finding arising from this research showed that people have been displaced due to environmental/ecological factors, socioeconomic depression, political stability, violence/war, terrorism,persecution, growth in population, ethno-political conflict/tension, breakdown of state structures an institutions among others.Also, findings showed that refugees ad IDPs face pitiable physical,emotional,psychological tension/trauma, economic resources lack and human rights abuse which shows that social workers role in stemming and mitigating migration and the plight of refugees cannot be over emphasized.Against this backdrop, the researcher recommends that government at all levels should provide for the human and materials need of the people, ensure peace and harmony, integrate policy thrust, resources and needs of the refugees into all aspects of national development planning. Also, nations should be alive to the protection, support and assistance programmes for the refugees and internally displaced persons as relief officials and agencies become more dedicated and committed to their duties and responsibilities of providing professional services and support good for the refugees, displaced persons and society.Similarly, more social workers should work in refugee and IDPs camps to provide professional services and support beneficial to those vulnerable persons as well as to see to the strict enforcement and implementation of the 1995 UN convention and the 1967 protocol among signatory nations.