Refugees face a lot of challenges and oppression within society, and social workers are needed with refugees to help them receive all the social services and support necessary for them to succeed in contemporary Canadian society. As evidence within this analysis showed, refugees are often disadvantaged in society. Social work with refugees is an extremely difficult task, as there are often social and political barriers in place that result in refugees having restricted and limited access to health and social services (voices article). Social work with refugees on a service delivery basis includes helping a refugee obtain employment, education, affordable housing, safe/accessible health services, language proficiency in English or French, Meaning the oppression and challenges refugees face do not only affect one part of their life, but often all the oppression and challenges are interconnected and reinforced by the fact that they are a refugee. Refugees are an extremely vulnerable groups to social workers, as they often have experienced traumatic events, and social workers must take extra precaution to ensure that refugees feel safe and involved in service planning. Social workers that work with refugees must not “other” the refugee client or assign them a “victim role”, as this denies the refugee their independence and right to make decisions in a country that they fled to in order to find independence (voices article). Often individuals in our society attribute the “victim role” to refugees as they are often seen as helpless individuals in need of our saving, but in reality labelling and treating the refugee as a victim infantilizes the refugee, and is often doing more harm than good. Allowing a refugee client to make their own decisions and giving them the right to self-determination is outlined in the Code of Ethics for social workers, the Code states that social workers “must have respect for the inherent dignity and worth of persons” (textbook). Therefore, in order for a social worker to be ethical in their tasks they must make sure that the refugee is involved in service planning. The Code also outlines that social workers must always be in the pursuit of social justice, and as was explained throughout this entire analysis, there are massive social and political barriers that restrict and limit a refugee’s ability to easily access social service resources (textbook). Therefore, social workers must be aware of the barriers that exist for refugees, and also actively attempt to eradicate the barriers, and advocate for equal access to resources. This analysis
The term government policy is any cause of action implemented by the government to change a certain situation and to tackle a wide range of issues in all areaslikefinance,education,statewelfare,immigrationlaw(https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/government-policy).For the purpose of this essay, I will be talking more about government policies in relation to refugees and asylum seekers and its implication for social work.
These issues also include poverty and limited or no access to education, training, mental health and health care resources. Refugees also face persecution and are unable to return to their home in their native country (Villalba, 2009). Mental health counselors need to understand the impact of trauma on their refugee clientele, as they may include physical torture and mental abuse in nature. According to Sue and Sue (2013) counselors will need to address the most salient concerns of refugees, which include safety and loss. The possibility of being, or having been, mentally abused and physically tortured has an impact on their ability to stay in the hosting country. Counselors will be dealing with post-traumatic stress from their client. Equally important is for the counselor to assist the refugee in understanding issues of confidentiality. For Muslim immigrants and refugees, counselors should consider national policies during the counseling process. For example, the two Sudanese sisters’ were able to resolve their religious practice of wearing the hijab and securing employment in a beneficial way. As an advocate for the sisters and other Muslim refugees, it would be helpful to provide them access to resources that educate them in antidiscrimination policies that can protect them against hate crimes and legal resources that can help them seek asylum. In essence, culturally competent practices for counselors working with immigrants and refugees begin with understanding their worldviews, as well the national and international legal issues that confront their
The National Association of Social Workers, NASW, considers the following as its six most core values; service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. The value of service is considered to be a core value because offering help to those in need is a crucial goal for all of those looking to practice in the field of Social Work. These services can include, but are not limited to, addressing social problems, helping those in need, and volunteering their knowledge to those who cannot otherwise afford such help. Social Justice is also an important core value for a Social Worker to develop. As a Social Worker one will encounter many people from several different walks of life, no two cases will ever be exactly the same. Some of these walks of life can leave a client vulnerable, defenseless, exploited, oppressed, and troubled. Therefore it is important to learn what Social Justice is, and how to help people from falling victim to injustice. Dignity and Worth of the Person is one of the most important values that one should uphold. People who need the help of a Social Worker many, but not all, times feel powerless, embarrassed, and worthless because they feel as though they cannot control aspects of their life an...
It is important to include cultural issues in the helping process to be more effective. We also need cultural competence because the U.S. is becoming more diverse. Therefore with diversity comes different beliefs, norms, and values. Eurocentric values dominate sciences and began cultural universals which puts the clash of dominate and non-dominate cultural behaviors in motion. In 1996 the NASW Code of Ethics increased the recognition of cultural competence. It is important to know diversity exist within ethnic and cultural groups because social workers need to know that relationships between helping professionals and clients may be strained. This happens because of the distrust between groups. Another important aspect is that the professional realizes their own values, biases, and beliefs. The reason for this is because they must value diversity to start with and understand the dynamics of difference. Culturally competent practitioners have to go through developmental process of using their own culture as a starting point to meet all behaviors. Striving for cultural competence is a long term process of development. The literature on cultural competence is theoretical and conceptual. They have not been evaluated in a systematic way. Roughly there are 2 million Native americans in the U.S. Which survive decimating disease, over-repressed in child welfare system, suffer from health problems, and are among the poorest people in the United States. Working with them clearly falls within the social work clearly mandate to serve vulnerable and oppressed clients. However, we do not know how many people from this group is actually receiving help from social workers. Even though it is important to train social workers to provide care in th...
Therefore, the majority of Canadian social workers follow AOP guidelines, and my social work practice has been marked with some of those guidelines such as empowerment, collectivization and reducing sources of oppression. These strengths enable my experience in another country to be transferable to the Canadian work context, however some limitations such as lack of knowledge of social policies as an intrinsic element of social transformation, the need of implicating my social location in social work interventions, and the strict adherence to the agency rules and procedures place my practice for a necessity of updating and increasing social work knowledge. Thus, the congruency between my practice and Canadian social work is based on some commonalities and differences. These differences can be improved to be transferable to the Canadian
In the National Association for Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics, there are many standards a social worker should uphold in order to promote a healthy and helpful relationship with the client. One such aptitude is Cultural Competence and Social Diversity, which is in section 1.05 of the NASW code of ethics (National Association of Social Workers, 2008). There are three sections associated with this competency “Social workers should understand culture and its function in human behavior and society, recognizing the strengths of all cultures”. It is assumed that “social workers should have a knowledge base of their clients’ cultures and be able to demonstrate competence in the provision of services that are sensitive to clients”. As a final point “Social workers should obtain education” in order to understand cultural diversity and oppression in people (NASW, 2008, p. 9).
As a social worker, the ability to merge cultural competencies with social work methods and theories allows intervention to be customized to meet their client’s need-based which vary upon culture. Since there are a massive amount of different cultures with different traditions, values, and beliefs the social worker needs to obtain the fundamentals of the culture in order to assess and advocate for the ethnic group effectively. The NASW of Ethics clearly values the competence and the Ethical Principle of Social workers practice within the areas of competence and enhances their professional expertise. In addition, “ Cultural competence is a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system or agency or among professionals and enable the system, agency, or professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations” (NASW, 2000b, p. 61). Cultural competency ensures that our primary mission of the social work profession to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty.
During the month of October, Canada’s political scene was very busy due to the 2015 federal election held on the 19th. Throughout the previous months, the public held great interest towards the campaigns of each party as well as their platforms in order to choose the party that the public wanted as the new government of Canada. In the campaigns, a major topic that was included in every party’s plan was the Syrian refugee crisis that is currently an issue in many countries around the globe. This crisis has taken the media by storm and is a concern for many citizens in Canada. As a country known to be peaceful and generous, many people would assume that Canada would be one of the first to step in and help those in need but that is not the case. The general population does not know that the current laws in place make becoming a refugee in Canada a long and unfair process. Acquiring refugee status in Canada, protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, health care for refugees and the current stance of Canada in regards to the refugee crisis are all factors that the general public must be more aware about. The current laws regarding refugees of Canada must change.
The social problem we have chosen to address is the mental health status of refugees. Refugees are exposed to a significant amount of trauma due to fear, war, persecution, torture, and relocating. The mental health illnesses that can affect refugees due to exposure to traumas include post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. Research indicated that refugees relocating from war-torn countries are particularly vulnerable to mental health concerns because many have experienced early traumas and face further post-traumas after relocation (Cummings, et al., 2011). However, despite the prevalence of mental health issues concerning refugees, mental health needs often go unrecognized and untreated.
Among an array of Values from The Code of Ethics (TCE) of social work Value 1 dictates that as social workers we must respect the dignity of our clients and refrain from passing judgement onto them (Canadian Association of Social Work, 2005, pg.7). As a social worker, it is important to follow this value as it prevents the distancing of the client from the worker as the client will have a better chance of opening up to someone who does not instantly tell them what to do or reprimand them for their actions or non-action in their lives. Oppression relates to the TCE in that it says the social work profession’s main purpose is to raise their clients who are vulnerable, oppressed and/or living in poverty (CASW, 2005, pg.7). Taking this into account
Ethnic minorities seeking services should have access to culturally sensitive social workers, who acknowledge and confront practical dilemmas when working with increasing numbers of culturally diverse people in the community. Professionals working with minority groups, “must provoke moral sensibility, political consciousness, and social action” (Aponte, Rivers, & Wohl, 1995, p. ix). It is imperative f...
Humanitarian refugee, typical move to the closes liberal country that will accept the reason to seek asylum. This may be their final destination, our they seek a second asylum in a larger city. When refugees seek asylum, in another country, they typically will arrive in a country that is has not have many jobs, some of the refugee will have more skills than the native, which can put the native out of work and cause unwanted tension between refugee and the locals. There is really no way to manage the refugee with out have some issue with the political, economic, social burden it will bring. The best way to assist the refugee is to provide them with resources, keeping them healthy will decrease the burden on the new country (Niebuhr, U. D.,
Social workers challenge social injustice. Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. The meaning of this value is to ensure that individuals going into the social work profession pursue change, most importantly with, on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals, and with groups of people. Additionally, this social work value forces social workers to constantly affect social change primarily focused upon issues of poverty, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice by creating activities that seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic
The work of a social worker is complex and all encompassing. Social workers work in many capacities seeking justice, liberation, and equality. There work is global, as they work to put policies in place to govern practices. To keep up with societal shifts and generational changes there learning is continuous. As new questions rise so does the need for the continuation of research, not only to answer these questions but to implement into
In relation to social transformation I have gathered materials that focusses on programs provided for ‘refugees’ living in New Zealand. The purpose of my findings are based on the societies support for ‘refugees’ in terms of human security and directions of life before settling in their new destination. There are stories about ‘refugees’ that need to be shared and stories that need to be forgotten, because it can produce controversy within the society or the universe. But where can these ‘refugees’ go if the place they call home is unsafe or too risky for the lives of their families and for themselves. It’s hard enough to migrate into a new country, but it is devastating for refugees who have experienced the loss of homes and loved ones.