“Unaccompanied social workers, unaccompanied families”: qualitative research on Italian professionals’ feelings and emotions on working with African refugee families

ABSTRACT

The study explores the experiences of five Italian social workers working in secondary reception centres with African refugee families in an attempt to deepen the feelings experienced in working with refugee families as well as their representations of African parenthood. A semi-structured interview was developed and analysed according to the principles of the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The findings suggested that the work with the refugee families, compared to that with single refugees, might configure a higher at-risk area for mental health, due to the copious individual, relational, collective, social dimensions, and cultural issues to take into consideration, returning the idea that professionals working with refugee families seem to feel ‘unaccompanied’ and ‘emotionally loaded’. The results also deepen, from the social workers’ gaze, composite representations of African parenthood, evidencing the importance played by the cultural differences in reading and interpreting the foreigner parenting practices. Clinical implications will be discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Forced migration
• African families
• social workers
• qualitative research
• narratives

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Francesca Tessitore

Francesca Tessitore, Research Fellow in Clinical Psychology at University of Salerno, Ph.D. Psychologist, SPI (Italian Psychoanalytic Society) and IPA (International Psychoanalytic Association) Candidate. Her main research areas cover the topics of migration, trauma, the relationship between trauma and narrative processes, the clinical intervention with traumatized patients survived to extreme traumatization, the extension of psychoanalysis to the social contexts, gender-based violence.

Francesca Del Vecchio

Francesca Del Vecchio, Psychologist, graduated in Psychology at University of Naples Federico II. Her main research areas cover the topic of migration, with specific reference to the forced migration.

Mauro Cozzolino

Mauro Cozzolino, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology at University of Salerno. Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Hypnotherapist. Head of Didactic Council of Educational Sciences for Inclusion and Wellbeing. Head of the Observatory on the Promotion of Wellness at University of Salerno. His main research areas cover the topics of the relationship between mind and body, the clinical intervention in medical settings, chronic diseases and their treatment, the strategic integrated psychotherapy and its effectiveness in promoting the wellbeing and reducing the stress.

Giorgia Margherita

Giorgia Margherita, Associate Professor in Dynamic Psychology at University of Naples Federico II. Psychologist and Psychotherapist, Group Psychoanalyst Member of (I.I.P.G.) Italian Institute of Psychoanalysis Group, and (E.F.P.P.) European Federation for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in the Public Sector. Her main research areas cover the topic of migration and trauma, dream and dream work, the work with group and the groups intervention, gender-base violence.