Social Workers’ Perceptions of Structural Inequality and Immigrant Threat: Results From a National Survey

ABSTRACT

As part of a national survey on social workers’ attitudes toward immigrants and immigration (N=4,499), we collected information on respondents’ perceptions of immigrants as threats and respondents’ views on structural inequality as it pertains to immigrants’ opportunities for success. Contrary to the Council on Social Work Education’s Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards stating the need for social workers to understand the existence and functioning of structural forces of inequality, nearly a third of our respondents denied that immigrants are disadvantaged compared to U.S.-born citizens, and more than a third denied that disadvantage is related to race, ethnicity, or national origin. Those who denied disadvantage were more likely than those who did not to see immigrants as threats. We provide interpretations for these findings and offer some recommendations for social work research and education geared toward deepening practitioners’ knowledge of the structural barriers faced by immigrants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Smith College Brown Foundation Clinical Research Institute.

Notes on contributors

Yoosun Park

Yoosun Park is an Associate Professor at Smith College School for Social Work, Maria Torres is an Assistant Professor at Stonybrook University School of Social Welfare, Rupaleem Bhuyan is an Associate Professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at University of Toronto, Jixia Ao is a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist at the New Journeys First Episode Psychosis Program and Transitional Youth Services at Ryther in Seattle, Washington, Lucy Graves was a clinical social worker, and Andrew Rundle is an Associate Professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.