Social Work With Migrants and Refugees
Challenges, Best Practices, and Future Directions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18060/22600Keywords:
migrants, refugees, future directions, editorialAbstract
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 potential for social work to do much more to advance the rights and interests of those fleeing conflict, economic or natural disasters, or other upheavals.
References
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Zolberg, A. R. (2006). A nation by design: Immigration policy in the fashioning of America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Brice, P. (2018, March 28). This is saving refugee lives. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/theworldpost/wp/2018/03/28/refugee-crisis/?utm_term=.9a72aa86d3b7
Blitzer, J. (2018, June 11). The Trump administration is completely unraveling the U.S. asylum system. The New Yorker. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-trump-administration-is-completely-unraveling-the-us-asylum-system
Delgada Bernal, D., Burciaga, R., & Flores Carmona, J. (2016). Chicana/Latina testimonios as pedagogical, methodological, and activist approaches to social justice. New York: Routledge.
Deutsche Welle. (2018, April 12). Germany requests border control extension for Austrian frontier. Retrieved from https://www.dw.com/en/germany-requests-border-control-extension-for-austrian-frontier/a-43367693
European Commission. (2018). Migration and Home Affairs. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/index_en
Greider, A. (2017, August 17). Outsourcing migration management: The role of the Western Balkans in the European refugee crisis. Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/outsourcing-migration-management-western-balkans-europes-refugee-crisis
Haines, D. W. (2010). Safe haven? A history of refugees in America. Boulder, CO: Kumarian Press.
Hansen, R. (2018). A comprehensive refugee response framework: A commentary. Journal of Refugee Studies, 31(2), 131-151. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fey020
Harding, S., & Libal, K. (2012). Iraqi refugees and the humanitarian costs of the Iraq war: What role for social work? International Journal of Social Welfare, 21(1), 94-104. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2397.2011.00780.x
International Crisis Group. (2018, September 12). How to save the U.S. refugee admissions program. New York: ICG. Retrieved from https://d2071andvip0wj.cloudfront.net/002-how-to-save-the-us-refugee-program.pdf
Myers, B. (2018, March 16). Trump’s immigration policy shifting children into foster care. Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. Retrieved from https://jjie.org/2018/03/16/trumps-immigration-policy-pushing-children-into-foster-care/
National Association of Social Workers [NASW]. (2018). NASW says plan to separate undocumented immigrant children from their parents is malicious and unconscionable. Retrieved from https://www.socialworkers.org/News/News-Releases/ID/1654/NASW-says-plan-to-separate-undocumented-immigrant-children-from-their-parents-is-malicious-and-unconscionable
Peterie, M. (2018). Deprivation, frustration, and trauma: Immigration detention centres as prisons. Refugee Studies Quarterly, 37(3), 279-306. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdy008
Pierce, S., Bolter, J., & Selee, A. (2018). Trump’s first year on immigration policy: Rhetoric vs. reality. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/trump-first-year-immigration-policy-rhetoric-vs-reality
Polakow-Suransky, S. (2017). Go back where you came from: The backlash against immigration and the fate of Western democracy. New York: Nation Books.
Shear, M. D., & Baumgaertner, E. (2018, September 22). Trump administration aims to sharply restrict new green cards for those on public aid. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/22/us/politics/immigrants-green-card-public-aid.html
Trudeau, J. (2016, February 8). Prime minister sets new course to address crises in Iraq and Syria and impacts on the region. Retrieved from https://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2016/02/08/prime-minister-sets-new-course-address-crises-iraq-and-syria-and-impacts-region
United Nations. (2016). New York declaration for refugees and migrants, A/RES/71/1. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/71/1
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR]. (2017). Global trends: Forced displacement in 2016. Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2016/
UNHCR. (2018). Figures at a glance. Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html
U.S. Department of State. (n.d.). Refugee admissions. Retrieved from https://www.state.gov/j/prm/ra/
Zayas, L. H. (2015). Forgotten citizens: Deportation, children, and the making of American exiles and orphans. New York: Oxford University Press.
Zolberg, A. R. (2006). A nation by design: Immigration policy in the fashioning of America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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Published
2018-09-24
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Editorial
