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Social Services and Migrants

Social Services and Migrants. Alastair Christie Department of Applied Social Studies UCC. Research interests. Relationships between migration and welfare ‘Social work’ as a welfare ‘profession’ working with migrants. Migration and welfare. Bauman’s garden state - welfare state

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Social Services and Migrants

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  1. Social Services and Migrants Alastair Christie Department of Applied Social Studies UCC

  2. Research interests • Relationships between migration and welfare • ‘Social work’ as a welfare ‘profession’ working with migrants

  3. Migration and welfare • Bauman’s garden state - welfare state • Welfare as a key form of social regulation • Gatekeepers to resources, forms of detention • External and internal borders of the nation state External borders - involvement in immigration procedures (e.g. separated children) Internal borders - immigration status linked to entitlement to welfare provision (e.g. habitual residence condition) • Changing nature of the social - increasing importance of types of mobility and immobility

  4. Welfare and social solidarity Loyalty to the nation-state and social solidarity was encouraged through the development of welfare states How is social solidarity fostered in a globalised world marked by migration? How does the ‘post-welfare’ state respond to migrants? Is integration a remnant of the old welfare state model?

  5. ‘Social work’ as a welfare ‘profession’? • Definition of social work to ‘promote social justice’(IFSW) • Social workers educated to work in a ‘multicultural society’ • Anti-racist practice

  6. My research • Responses of social workers to migrants since the mid-1990s • Social workers’ particular role in relation to separated children / unaccompanied minors seeking asylum • Based on a pilot study of social workers and documentary analysis • Immigration, Residence and Protection Legislation - social policing

  7. Questions raised by research on separated children • Children or asylum seekers - ‘best interests of children’ (only certain children?) • Being drawn into a quasi-legal role • Age determination • Specialized child care service (universal?) • Different levels of service for children with different immigration status

  8. More questions… • Inadequate resourcing of services • Responses to separated children in care who ‘disappear’ • Assessment of family re-unification • Should separated children be part of the refugee application process? • Multiple, changing and competing understands of ‘childhood’ • No national policy. Social profession responding differently in different regions

  9. Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill - ‘social policing’ • All foreign nationals including those under the age of 16 years have to provide identification. (Immigration Act 2000 - under 16 not required to produce ID) • Failure to cooperate - a criminal offence • Biometric data for under 14 - collected in present of person acting in loco parentis (social workers) • Requirement to carry ID - who will be asked for ID? • Facilitating deportation. Hand over children to immigration officers, collection of data, obtain travel documents, sign documentation • Failure to cooperate - a criminal offence.

  10. Future research • My research is about mapping changes in welfare responses to migrants and particular migrant children who become social work clients. • ‘[c]hildhood is the extensively governed sector of person existence’ • Doubly governed as child and asylum seeker. • Need to undertake research on other welfare service users (e.g. mental health service users) • ‘Integration’, welfare state and welfare professionals

  11. References • Editor: Special edition of the Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies on Asylum and Social Service Responses, 7(2), 2006 (with Kenneth Burns) • 'From racial to racist state: question for social professionals in working with asylum seekers', Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies, (7(2), 2006 pp. 35-51. • 'Editorial: Community and Social Service Responses to Asylum Seekers', Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies, 7(2) , 2006, pp. 6-17. (with Kenneth Burns) • 'Globalization and changing discourses of 'childhood': new challenges for the social work profession in Ireland', in Peter Herrmann (ed.) Citizenship Revisited: Threats or Opportunities of Shifting Boundaries, New York: Nova Science, 2004, pp. 123-135. • 'Unsettling the 'social' in social work: responses to asylum seeking children in Ireland', Child and Family Social Work, 8 (3), 2003, pp. 223-231. • 'Asylum seekers, refugees, migration and the social work profession in Ireland?', in Christine Labonté-Roset, Ewa Marynowicz-Hetka and Jerzy Szmagalski (eds.), Social Work Education and Practice in Today's Europe: Challenges and the Diversity of Responses, Katowice: Slask, 2003, pp. 467-479. • 'Responses of the social work profession to unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the Republic of Ireland', European Journal of Social Work, 5 (2), 2002, pp. 187-198. • 'Asylum seekers and refugees in Ireland: questions of racism and social work', Social Work In Europe, 9 (1), 2002, pp.10-17.

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