Comparative social work practices with young refugee and asylum seeker: the European experiences

ABSTRACT

Despite the increased interest in improving the wellbeing of youth refugees and asylum-seekers, studies examining the links between social work practices in the recipient countries, the migration context, and the diverse needs of youth refugees, are limited. This paper builds a comparative perspective of youth social work policy, practices, and engagement related to young refugees in Finland, the United Kingdom, Malta, Italy, and Serbia. We solicited 48 good practices in youth social work, identified the central themes of social work practices, and linked them to each country’s migration context and social work policy. We found that the majority of youth programmes were carried out by NGOs at national level, except in Finland, where support from public institutions was significant. Social work practices in the arrival and first transit-point countries such as Malta, Italy, and Serbia, emphasise support on socioeconomic empowerment. In the main destination countries like Finland and the UK, the artistic and social initiatives as well as person-centered support services were more dominant. One common theme is found, that many of the programmes aimed to create a safe space for the refugees and sense of belongingness through the inclusion with in the communities they currently live in.

ABSTRAKTI

Huolimatta kasvavasta mielenkiinnosta nuorten pakolaisten ja turvapaikanhakijoiden hyvinvoinnin parantamiseen, vastaanottajamaiden sosiaalityön käytäntöjen ja maahanmuuttokysymysten sekä nuorten pakolaisten erilaisten tarpeiden välisiä yhteyksiä käsitteleviä tutkimuksia on julkaistu toistaiseksi vähän. Tässä artikkelissa vertaillaan nuoriin pakolaisiin kohdistettuja sosiaalipolitiikan keinoja ja käytäntöjä Suomessa, Isossa-Britanniassa, Maltalla, Italiassa ja Serbiassa. PAPYRUS-hankkeessa tunnistettiin 48 hyvää käytäntöä, jotka analysoimme etsien niiden keskeisiä teemoja. Löydettyjä neljää keskeistä teemaa tarkasteltiin suhteessa kunkin vastaanottajamaan maahanmuuton erityiskysymyksiin ja sosiaalityön painopisteisiin. Tulokset osoittavat, että valtaosan nuoriin pakolaisiin kohdistetuista ohjelmista toteuttivat kansalaisjärjestöt. Tutkimukseen osallistuneista maista ainoastaan Suomessa julkisella sektorilla oli merkittävä rooli. Sosiaalityön käytännöissä ensisijaisissa saapumis- ja kauttakulkumaissa (Malta, Italia, Serbia) korostui sosiaalis-taloudellisen tuen tarjoaminen, kun taas varsinaisissa kohdemaissa (Suomi ja Iso-Britannia) taiteeseen ja sosiaaliseen tukeen perustuvat ohjelmat sekä henkilökeskeiset tukipalvelut olivat hallitsevia. Usein toistuva teema oli pyrkimys vahvistaa pakolaisten turvallisuuden ja osallisuuden kokemuksia sekä edistää integroitumista nykyiseen asuinympäristöön.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth work
• refugees
• asylum seekers
• good practice

AVAINSANA:

• nuorisotyö
• pakolaiset
• turvapaikanhakijat
• hyvät käytännöt

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the project partners from Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK, Turku University of Applied Sciences and University of Turku in Finland, Western Balkans Institute in Serbia, European Centre of Studies and Initiatives (CESIE) in Italy, and Koperazzjoni Internazzjonali (KOPIN) in Malta; and also the comments and suggestions from the participants at Nordic Social Work Conference in Helsinki in 2018. We thank two anonymous referees and Editor Jochen Devlieghere, for the comments and suggestions that help to tremendously improve the content and quality of this paper. Financial support from Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ayu Pratiwi is a Postdoctoral Researcher in University of Turku, Economic Geography unit, in Finland. She has been working on PAPYRUS project during her time as a project researcher at Health and Well-being unit, in Turku University of Applied Sciences. She attained her Ph.D. in International Studies from the University of Tokyo in Japan, in 2016.

Outi Linnossuo is a Social worker and Senior Lecturer at Social Work unit, Turku University of Applied Sciences. Her main research interests are related to child protection and recently, migration. She used to work as a Social Worker in child protection. She also facilitate expresessive arts as a way of working with clients in social services. The PAPYRUS project knowledge platform for people working with young migrants in Europe she initiated with the project partners won the best practice from European Commission.

Heli Marjanen holds the chair in economic geography at the department of Marketing and International Business at Turku School of Economics since 1999. Throughout her academic career, she has been engaged in consumer behaviour in various contexts. She has collaborated in several research and education oriented academic organisations, including the Finnish University Network for Tourism Studies, and the Finnish Institute of Migration.

ORCID

Ayu Pratiwi http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6824-6080

Heli Marjanen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8015-1217

Notes

1 Our project consortium consisted of five country partners of Finland, Italy, Malta, Serbia, and the United Kingdom, namely two universities partners in Finland and The United Kingdom, and the NGOs in Italy, Malta, and Serbia, which were chosen as project partners due to more exposure and experience working in refugees and asylum seekers.

2 Information on the identified programmes is available upon request (or attached as a supplementary material, subject to editor’s approval)