Other ‘lenses’: a training programme for social workers and others working with asylum seekers and migrants in Italy

ABSTRACT

The article describes the approach adopted in VeSTA, a training project in Piedmont (north-west Italy), funded by the EU's Fund for Asylum, Migration and Integration (FAMI 2014–2020). The aim of the project was to provide training for social workers and others professionals working with refugees and other migrants, and strengthen the network linking up these various actors. Our theoretical approach stresses the importance of asylum seekers’ social networks, and the legal, institutional and discursive constraints structuring their lives, in order to provide a framework for understanding choices and attitudes of residents of reception centres, as well as those of other migrants. Drawing on research on migration and on media production, we encouraged participants in the training sessions to analyse migrants as ‘social actors’, rather than interpreting their behaviour and needs in terms of ‘their culture’. A particularly innovative part of the project was the involvement of 16 migrants as ‘experts in the relationship with the social services’, who participated with lecturers in certain sessions, in a participatory action approach.

SOMMARIO

L’articolo presenta l’approccio adottato in VeSTA, un progetto di formazione svolto in Piemonte (Italia nord-occidentale), finanziato dal Fondo europeo per Asilo, Migrazione e Integrazione (FAMI 2014–2020). Obiettivi principali del progetto sono stati: offrire un percorso formativo agli assistenti sociali e ad altri professionisti che lavorano con i rifugiati e altri migranti, e rafforzare le reti che collegano questi diversi attori. Il nostro approccio teorico ha evidenziato quanto sia importante considerare sia i social network dei richiedenti asilo sia i vincoli legali, istituzionali e discorsivi che strutturano le loro vite come elementi centrali all’interno del quadro di riferimento utile per comprendere le scelte e gli atteggiamenti dei residenti dei centri di accoglienza, così come quelli degli altri migranti. Sulla base di ricerche sulla migrazione e sulla produzione mediatica, abbiamo incoraggiato i partecipanti, durante le sessioni formative, a considerare i migranti come ‘attori sociali’, piuttosto che interpretare il loro comportamento e i loro bisogni in termini di ‘cultura’. Una parte particolarmente innovativa del progetto è stata il coinvolgimento di 16 migranti come ‘esperti nel rapporto con i servizi sociali’, che hanno partecipato con i docenti in alcuni incontri della formazione, applicando l’approccio di azione partecipativa.

KEYWORDS:

• Refugees
• migrants
• social workers
• culturalism
• media discourse

PAROLE CHIAVE:

• rifugiati
• migranti
• assistenti sociali
• educatori professionali
• reti sociali
• culturalismo
• media discourse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Elena Allegri is Senior Lecture in Sociology and Social Work at the Department of Law, Political, Economic and Social Studies at the University of Eastern Piedmont, in Alessandria and Asti, Italy. Her research and publications focus on community social work, anti-oppressive social work and practice research, supervision, media representation of social workers, domestic violence and migration and she has published books and articles on the same topics. She introduced service users’ involvement in social work education in Italy. She leaded the VeSTA project for her Department.

Michael Eve is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Law, Political, Economic and Social Studies at the University of Eastern Piedmont in Alessandria, Italy. He has published work in leading sociological journals on various aspects of social inequalities, and on the way labour migration enters into systems of social stratification. In much of his work he has investigated the role of social networks and personal relationships in the creation of social alliances and social boundaries.

Roberto Mazzola is Full Professor of Intercultural Law and Law and Religion at the Department of Law, Political, Economic and Social Studies, University of Eastern Piedmont. Visiting professor at the Law School of University South-Paris, and Wien University. Director of International Forum of Democracy & Religions (FIDR) and Member of European Consortium for Church and State Research. He has published work in leading law journals about the relationship between religious organisations and States in Europe, particularly on presence of the religious minorities in the migration context.

Maria Perino teaches Sociology of Migration in the Department of Law, Political, Economic and Social Studies at the University of Eastern Piedmont in Italy. Among her courses, she has taught trainee social workers for several years. She has published on children of migrants and migrant parents’ relationship with schools, and on the specificities of asylum seekers. In her work she has often criticised essentializing ‘culturalist’ representations of migrants and their children.

Andrea Pogliano is Lecturer in Sociology of culture and in Sociology of communication at the Department of Law, Political, Economic and Social Studies, University of Eastern Piedmont, Alessandria, Italy, and Research Affiliate for the Forum of International and European Research on Immigration, based in Turin. He was a Marie Curie student at the CNRS – IRESCO in Paris and a visiting scholar at the EHESS. His main research interests are in journalism, photojournalism, public communication and framing. He works on news media representations of migration and more broadly on the role of communication and culture in producing solidarity and conflict in multicultural societies.

ORCID

Elena Allegri http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2775-0675

Michael Eve http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3339-729X

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Ve.S.T.A. was headed by the Region of Piedmont, with the Department of Law and Political, Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Eastern Piedmont, the Institute of Socio-Economic Research of Piedmont, and the Italian Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration as partners. Overall, 687 employees of reception centres for asylum seekers, social workers, and employees of social and health services took part in VeSTA. There were 55 sessions and 330 hours of training, held in 7 different towns in the region by 13 trainers. 63% of those who took part had not taken part in training on the themes covered in the last 3 years. The training had two parts. The first, devoted to sociological, anthropological and socio-legal issues, consisted of 25 training sessions (150 hours) led by 10 lecturers. The second part, centred on working in the local community and on the approach of working in networks, consisted of 30 training sessions (180 h) led by 3 trainers. The present article does not cover the VeSTA sessions led by experts in migration law.

Additional information

Funding

Department of Law, Political, Economic and Social Studies, University of Eastern Piedmont, Alessandria, Italy. Grant ID: FAR Fondi di Ateneo per la Ricerca 2019 (University Funds for Research 2019).