Building Professional Bridges for Those Crossing Borders: Interprofessional Social Worker–Lawyer Training for Supporting Immigrant Clients

ABSTRACT

In recent years, immigrant family apprehensions at the United States southern border have more than doubled. Those wishing to stay enter a complex legal process as they either fight for lawful status or remain unauthorized. The trauma many experienced may inhibit their ability to articulate claims to legal status. Yet several relief options are only available to applicants who have suffered trauma. Social worker-lawyer collaboration can enhance advocacy on such cases. Social work educators can train practitioners to engage in effective interprofessional partnerships. We developed an interprofessional training tailored to social worker–lawyer collaborations supporting immigrant clients. We present the curriculum structure and post-training survey results, and offer suggestions for social work education on interprofessional collaborations in immigrant client advocacy.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ We do not mention refugees here because refugee status is only conferred outside of the country of refuge. Thus, refugees enter the country already in lawful status and do not require legal assistance to legalize their status based on the trauma they suffered prior to entry. The definitions of refugee and asylee are substantively identical (8U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42), with the only difference being where said status is conferred (8U.S.C. § 1158(a)(1)).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Peabody Society of the College of Human Sciences & Education at Louisiana State University.

Notes on contributors

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is Assistant Professor at Louisiana State University, School of Social Work. Lauren Aronson is Associate Clinical Professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law.

Lauren Aronson

Jennifer Scott is Assistant Professor at Louisiana State University, School of Social Work. Lauren Aronson is Associate Clinical Professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law.