Abstract
2017 is an important year as we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of International Social Work. Our journal was founded in 1967 with the inaugural issue published a year later. Since then, we have continuously provided the social work community with a vibrant platform for academic debates, the sharing of ideas, circulation of important news and celebration of our profession’s development. In order to mark the 60th anniversary we decided to engage with a number of celebratory activities which include an online special issue on historical articles published in the journal over the decades, free access to a selection of more contemporary key articles, and participation in the EASSW conference in Paris and the IFSW-Europe conference in Reykjavik.
Also, as part of our activities marking the 60th anniversary, we decided to dedicate the present issue to a crucial and multi-layered theme that has demanded the constant attention and intervention of social workers since the inception of the profession – migration and the movement of people.
More than a million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe in 2015 alone. This has been the largest movement of people fleeing persecution in modern European history. The political and humanitarian crisis we have been witnessing is fuelled by conflicts in Northern and Eastern Africa, in the Middle East and Central Asia. The constant flow of images of destruction, death and devastation from regions affected by conflict can only serve as a reminder of the horrors of colonial and sectarian politics. European governments have been historically involved, one way or another, in all those conflicts. Unashamedly, they still are. Let us not forget that what is described at the moment as the removal process of ‘vicious and evil regimes’ in most cases refers to regimes selected, installed and supported by western countries.
In several cases, social workers supported those movements through their direct work with refugees, awareness raising activities, and solidarity events. SWAN, EASSW and IFSW were instrumental in facilitating and coordinating solidarity activities. Of course social work’s involvement in supporting refugees, even under the most extreme of circumstances, is not new. Our profession has a very proud history of supporting refugees and extending genuine solidarity with those fleeing war and persecution. Numerous stories of sacrifice are a testament to this fact. To mention but a few: between 1940 and 1943 Irena Sendler, a Polish-Jewish social worker, saved nearly 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto through the creation of underground networks; an African American social worker, Thyra Edwards, who strongly believed at the universal nature of the struggle against all oppressions, left the US in 1936 and travelled to Barcelona in order to support displaced children through dedicated work at the Rosa Luxembourg Children Colony. The mobilization of international and national social work organisations has been both crucial and necessary.
In the first article in this issue, Vered Slonim-Nevo and Maya Lavie-Ajayi explore the perspectives of asylum seekers from Darfur with regard to four stages of their journey: before leaving Sudan, their journey to Israel, living in Israel, and their future plans. The authors used group interviews and, in their findings, identified four main themes. These included transitioning to loneliness, experiencing extreme conditions and eventually identifying positive and negative experiences. The article also highlights the importance of hope as a mechanism of resilience.
Diane Mitschke, Regina T. Praetorius, Don R. Kelly, Eusebius Small and Youn T. P. Kim also discuss the plight of those who flee war and persecution. They demonstrate the importance of understanding the dynamics of mental health of recently resettled refugees as an essential component of comprehensive resettlement programs. In order to do so they make use of semi-structured interviews with resettled refugees from five countries who had received treatment for depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, or anxiety. Themes generated from the interviews emphasized the need for strong group-based social support as well as a focus on practical needs such as acquiring and maintaining employment, language and literacy training, and access to care.
In the next article, Deborah Nelson, Joanna Teresa Zubrzycki and Elizabeth Price present a model of Australian social work with unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people which aims to build hope, agency and meaning for the social worker and the young person. Informed by Foucault’s understanding of resistance, the model encourages social workers to pay attention to little practices of freedom through the development of professional relationships which address counselling needs, practical advocacy and social change within complex socio-political, cultural and therapeutic contexts. The article concludes with an exploration of the model’s potential for international transferability.
Talal Abdel Kareem Qdah and Marie Lacroix focus their study on Syrian refugees in Jordan. In their article they discuss how social workers make use of participatory, bottom-up, and human rights focused, assessment and intervention methods. They argue that this methodology could be used as a ‘template’ for social workers in other countries where refugees and local population face continuous and complex humanitarian challenges.
Jenny Chingkhannem Tonsing and Ravinder Barn explore migrant South Asian women’s experiences of domestic violence and help-seeking practices. Their study considers the relevance of the notion of shame as a unit of analysis to help contribute to the growing theoretical and empirical literature. Within the framework of the discussion on shame and intimate partner violence (IPV), the article also identifies the implications for social work practice.
In the next article, Yahya El-Lahib proposes theoretical dimensions to examine the intersection of disability and immigration. His article describes three interrelated themes that bring these theoretical dimensions together: (a) knowledge production and dominance in terms of North/South power dynamics and relations; (b) the construction and processes of Othering and how these shape the experiences of people with disabilities in immigration; and, (c) resistance to these constructions of Othering.
Vulnerable migrant women and refugees are also the focus of Marleny Bonnycastle’s article. In her study she explores the mechanisms by which Colombian women war survivors, who were internally displaced in Colombia and are now living in Canada as refugees, exercised agency to learn, build knowledge and transcend the limitations of their situations. This article focuses on exploring the learning, knowledge, and types of agency women deploy while living in violent environments as well as in their new homelands.
In their article, Thomas M. Crea, Maryanne Loughry, Christine O’Halloran and George J. Flannery discuss urban refugees’ struggles to build livelihoods in South Africa. Their study identifies significant barriers to achieving livelihood security for this population, including community violence, crowding, fear of xenophobia, exploitation from officials and oversaturated markets for small businesses. Nevertheless, refugees identified several aspects of service provision from a non-governmental organization which proved helpful, especially through material assistance in helping establish viable, profit-generating small businesses. Recommendations for service delivery to this population include assessing refugees’ level of environmental vulnerability and providing a package of supports that address a clients’ particular living situation.
In the next article Autar Singh Dhesi explains processes of disaporan ‘virtual village community’ (VVC) formation and its moral action. It is suggested in this article that both self-interest and normative aspects of behaviour contribute to the formation of VVCs, centred in the ancestral place. However, social action for development becomes difficult in an evolving socio-economic environment unless core values are refurbished by realigning interests and creating new modes of interaction and communication. The intervention by morally driven members is key to mobilising VVC for development. Their findings suggest that members’ links external to the VVC enhance its capacity to contribute to ancestral places.
Trafficking is a complex and devastating dimension of forced migration and movement of people. Leah Edwards and Karla Marie Watson explore the conceptualization of sex trafficking in social work, through research, theory, and policy. The authors view sex trafficking from a macro level addressing the global phenomenon. Theoretical frameworks, perspectives, and models are utilized to analyse the foundation of current policy and research. The research suggests that in order to adequately address the challenges that sex trafficking presents, social work needs to move toward a multidisciplinary approach which empowers the voices of survivors in both policy and research.
In the next article, Moreblessing Tandeka Tinarwo uncovers racial discrimination as experienced by Zimbabwean social workers within the UK social services. Research findings highlight racism perpetuated by institutional policies that have remained unchallenged for years but have continuously served to undermine foreign qualifications and devalue work experience of those recruited from the Global South.
Peter Hendriks and Hans Van Ewijk retain their focus on minority ethnic social work probationers practicing within Western contexts. In their study the explain that social work in the Netherlands is attracting an increasing number of Turkish and Moroccan Dutch professionals, mostly second-generation migrant women from a Muslim background. Inspired by Amartya Sen’s capability approach, this article presents the findings of a qualitative content analysis of 40 interviews with professionals by peers from the same background. The question asked by the authors is, what kind of professionals do these newly started social workers desire to be and what hindrances do they encounter? The professionals challenge the dominance of Western beliefs and values. This becomes tangible in their desires and constraints and especially in the process of choice.
In the final article of this issue, Hyejoon Park, Meng-Jung Lee, Ga-Young Choi and Janet Zepernick use qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews to explore the adjustment challenges encountered by international graduate students during their study at US universities, and the protective factors most associated with successful adjustment. Nine students from China, Korea, and Taiwan, attending a Midwestern university, participated in the study. Language barriers and discrimination were the primary challenges reported; the factors most associated with successful adjustment were personal perception, social support, strong mentoring relationships, religious belief, and use of campus services. Implications for providing effective assistance for international graduate students are discussed.