Social Work with Greek Migrants: A personal experience of the issues and dilemmas

Abstract

The current vogue of thinking in relation to social work with migrants suggests that ethnic rather than Australian social workers can work more effectively with migrant groups. This thinking tends to underestimate the problems experienced by “ethnic professionals”. My experiences as a Greek social worker working with Greek migrants led me to the following conclusions: that significant adaptation must be made to casework theory when applied to migrant groups; and that the ethnic social worker experiences problems which, even though of a different nature to the Australian social workers' difficulties, can also preclude effective work being undertaken.