Best Practices for Social Work with Refugees and Immigrants

Miriam Potocky

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2002
• ISBN:
  9780231506083
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

Social work practice with refugees and immigrants requires specialized knowledge of these populations, and specialized adaptations and applications of mainstream services and interventions. Because they are often confronted with cultural, linguistic, political, and socioeconomic barriers, these groups are especially vulnerable to psychological problems. Among these problems are anxiety, depression, alienation, grief, even post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as biological concerns stemming from inadequate or underutilized medical services. Best Practices for Social Work with Refugees and Immigrants is the first book to offer a comprehensive guide to social work with foreign-born clients that evaluates many different strategies in light of their methodological strengths and weaknesses.

Part I sets forth the context for empirically based service approaches to such clients by describing the nature of these populations, relevant policies designed to assist them, and service delivery systems. Part II addresses specific problem areas common to refugees and immigrants and evaluates a variety of assessment and intervention techniques for each area. Maintaining a rigorous empirical and broadly pan-cultural approach throughout, Miriam Potocky-Tripodi seeks to identify the most practical, "best practices" to meet the various and pressing needs of uprooted peoples.

PART I

CONTEXT FOR SOCIAL WORK WITH REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

MANY SOCIAL WORKERS practice in settings that serve immigrant and refugee clients as part of their caseloads. Most social workers can expect to encounter such clients at some time in their careers. The population of immigrants and refugees in the United States is growing rapidly. It is estimated that by 2040, immigrants and refugees and their offspring will account for over one-quarter of the U.S. population (Fix & Passel 1994). And immigrants and refugees will account for 65 percent of the country’s population growth by 2050 (Doyle 1999). Thus it is essential that social workers be prepared to work effectively with this population.

Social work practice with refugees and immigrants requires specialized knowledge of the unique issues of these populations. It also requires specialized adaptations and applications of mainstream services and interventions. This book provides a comprehensive perspective of social work practice with refugees and immigrants—a perspective that entails examination of the multiple factors that affect immigrants and refugees at the micro, meso, and macro levels, and relevant practice approaches at each of those levels.

Additionally, rather than focusing on specific immigrant or refugee groups, this book adopts a “pancultural” perspective that focuses on the common experiences of and practice approaches for working with all immigrants and refugees. It has been argued that “multicultural social work must offer a pancultural perspective, which encompasses the various ethnic groups and also the dominant . . . culture in which they must coexist . . . . Fundamental to the pancultural perspective is the conviction that the culture and ethnicity of all people are important factors in the helping process” (Lum 2000, p. 97).

The book focuses primarily on practice in the United States, although it draws upon literature from around the world. Because of the great diversity of populations, policies, and practices in different countries, the issues addressed in this book may or may not be applicable outside of the United States. Thus, readers in other countries should use their own knowledge and judgment to adapt this information to their own local contexts.

This book is divided into two parts. Part I sets forth the context for social work practice with immigrants and refugees. This includes descriptions of the populations, relevant policies, and service delivery systems. Part II addresses specific problem areas within a biopsychosocial perspective. For each problem area, assessment and intervention techniques are discussed. The book focuses on empirically based practice approaches. This refers to assessment and intervention techniques that have been scientifically validated at least to some degree. It also refers to the social worker evaluating his or her own practice. Based on this, each chapter in part II delineates the “best practices” for the given problem area. It is recommended that the chapters be read in sequential order, since each one builds upon material presented in preceding chapters.

This first chapter discusses who immigrants and refugees are and why they migrate. The process of migration is described. The chapter provides statistics on these populations, their demographic characteristics, and service utilization patterns. Finally, each major group of immigrants and refugees is briefly described.

1.1 DEFINITIONS OF IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES

DEFINITIONS OF IMMIGRANTS and refugees differ depending on whether one is using social science definitions, legal definitions, or self-definitions (i.e., how immigrants and refugees identify themselves). At the most fundamental level, immigrants and refugees are people who were born in one country and have relocated to another. In the social science literature, these people are collectively referred to as the foreign-born population. People leaving a country to live elsewhere are called emigrants and people entering a country to settle there are called immigrants.

The fundamental distinction between immigrants and refugees is that immigrants leave their countries voluntarily (usually in search of better economic opportunities) whereas refugees are forced out of their countries because of human rights violations against them. Therefore, immigrants are also sometimes referred to as voluntary migrants or economic migrants, and refugees may be referred to as involuntary migrants or forced migrants. Refugees are also sometimes referred to, or refer to themselves, as exiles or émigrés.

The social science literature contains further distinctions within these broad categories of immigrants and refugees. These distinctions are based on the purpose and methodology of each particular study. Therefore, there tends to be inconsistency and lack of clarity in social science definitions (Loue 1998). Thus, it is more fruitful to turn to legal definitions.

Legally, anyone who is not a citizen of the United States is termed an alien. Aliens are further classified as immigrants and nonimmigrants, and as documented or undocumented (Loue 1998). In this classification, an immigrant is a person who has been legally admitted into the United States and granted the privilege to be a permanent resident (a “green card” holder). A nonimmigrant is a foreign-born person who is in the United States temporarily, such as a tourist, a student, or a journalist. Nonimmigrants also include temporary, or seasonal, workers, who come to the United States to work during certain periods of the year and return to their countries during the rest of the year. This typically refers to agricultural laborers.

A documented alien is one who has been granted a legal right to be in the United States. This legal right is determined by admissions policy. The admissions policy details many categories of people who are eligible to be legally admitted. It also specifies how many people from each country may be legally admitted into the U.S. each year. This policy is described further in the next chapter.

An undocumented alien is one who does not have a legal right to be in the United States. These people are also sometimes referred to as illegal immigrants. They are also referred to as deportable aliens, because if discovered by immigration authorities, they are subject to deportation, or forcible return to their countries of origin. There are two ways in which people become undocumented aliens. One is by entering the U.S. illegally. This means that the person has not received authorization to enter the United States. For example, people who cross the border from Mexico without going through immigration authorities are undocumented aliens. The second way that people become undocumented aliens is by entering the U.S. legally, but then violating the terms of their visa (the authorization to stay in the U.S.). For example, a tourist may be granted a visa to stay in the United States for a limited period of time. If the person stays after that time period has expired, then that person becomes an undocumented alien. Or, a student may be granted a visa to attend school in the U.S. If that student stops attending school and begins working, that person becomes an undocumented alien. The various categories of citizens and documented and undocumented aliens are summarized in table 1.1.

TABLE 1.1 CLASSIFICATION OF INDIVIDUALS AS CITIZENS AND AS DOCUMENTED OR UNDOCUMENTED NONCITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES

UNITED STATES CITIZENS

• Persons born in the United States.

• Persons born outside of the United States after 12/12/52 and before 11/14/86 to one U.S. citizen parent; second parent may be citizen or noncitizen; U.S. citizen parent resided in the U.S. for at least 10 years prior to birth of respondent, at least 5 of which were after parent was 14 years old.

• Persons born outside of the United States after 11/14/86 to one U.S. citizen parent; second parent may be citizen or noncitizen of U.S.; U.S. citizen parent resided in U.S. for at least 5 years before birth of respondent, at least 2 of which were after parent was 14 years old.

• Persons born outside of U.S. and its territories to parents both of whom are U.S. citizens; one parent resided in U.S. prior to respondent’s birth.

• Individuals who obtained U.S. citizenship through the process of naturalization.

• Individuals who obtained citizenship through the naturalization of their parent(s).

NONCITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES

Documented

• Lawfully admitted permanent resident (“green card” holder).

• Individuals admitted as refugees.

• Nonimmigrants who have not done anything to violate that status and who entered legally (e.g., tourists, students, journalists).

• Individuals granted an extraordinary administrative immigration remedy (parole, deferred action, extended voluntary departure).

• Individuals who have applied for legal status under amnesty or special agricultural worker programs, whose applications are pending.

Undocumented

• Individuals who have entered the United States illegally.

• Individuals who entered the United States legally, but violated the terms of their visa. This can include employment without authorization, failing to attend school if admitted as a student, or overstaying the length of time granted to stay in the U.S.

Source: Loue, 1998.

It is also important to distinguish legally between an immigrant and a refugee. As stated above, immigrants leave their countries voluntarily, whereas refugees leave because of human rights violations against them. Refugees are very specifically defined by international law. That law is the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which was established in 1951. This law is also sometimes referred to as the Geneva Convention, because it was adopted by the United Nations at Geneva, Switzerland. This law states that a refugee is “a person who is outside his / her country and is unable or unwilling to return to that country because of a well-founded fear that she / he will be persecuted because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group” (U.S. Department of State, 1996).

It is important to note that some people are in circumstances that appear similar to refugees, but they are not refugees as defined above. These are referred to as refugee-like situations. For example, a person may have moved from one part of his or her own country into another part of that same country because of the same fear of persecution as described above. This frequently happens in civil wars. Although such people may have suffered from the same human rights violations as refugees, and have been forced to move out of their homes like refugees, the...