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ABSTRACT
With increasing international migration, social workers have not only been confronted with growing diversity, but also with the effects of displacement, trauma and immigration controls in the lives of their service users. Although the ongoing debates on migration, migrant integration and social cohesion have facilitated a growing literature on, and demand for cultural competence in social work, little progress has been made to arrive at an agreement of what exactly is required from social workers in cross-cultural encounters. This paper draws from the qualitative element of a mixed-methods study on social workers’ experiences of cross-cultural practice conducted in Glasgow, Scotland in 2016. By focusing on social workers’ experiences of accommodating and negotiating cultural differences with asylum seekers, this paper illustrates how social workers are moving beyond the cultural lens in understanding difference and disadvantage. The findings suggest that whilst culture continues to influence social workers’ encounters with service users, addressing cultural conflicts requires social workers to understand the complex power relations which asylum seekers are subject to both within and beyond the care relationship. Practice perspectives on the challenges and successes in cross-cultural social work illustrate the interplay between cultural and structural considerations involved in social work with asylum seekers.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank the guest editor and both anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback for improving this paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Emmaleena Käkelä MSc is a PhD candidate in Social Work at the University of Strathclyde. Her research interests include forced migration, gendered inequalities and community participation. Her ESRC-funded doctoral research examines the continuation of, and the national responses to cultural manifestations of gender-based violence in the context of refugee integration and cultural change. She has previously worked on several research projects, including projects on migration and belonging, institutional abuse and gender-based violence in higher education.
Notes
1 The UK Home Office does not release separate statistics for Scotland, making it difficult to accurately estimate the number of dispersed asylum seekers; Section 95 support excludes those seeking asylum who are under 18, refused asylum seekers and those appealing their case. Glasgow is the only Scottish local authority participating in asylum dispersal, although other local authorities have accommodated asylum seekers separately through the Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement Scheme.
2 As stated by Sheila Furness, the now common-place term ‘cross-cultural competence’ was coined to ‘denote inclusive approaches in response to issues of diversity and difference in society’ (Furness, Citation2005, p. 248). Although for the purposes of this article the treatment of the concept has been limited to social work with migrants, cross-cultural competence has become a concern in social work with range of groups with diverse needs.
3 It has been argued that ‘the increasing perception of (uncontrolled) immigration as potential security threat has led to a migration approach that is mainly based on defence and deterrence’ in the EU (Völkel, Citation2014, p. 151). This can be seen in the tighter immigration controls and growing public pressure to reduce the number of asylum seekers across Europe. In the UK, the Home Office hostile environment policy targets immigrants with no right to remain with a range of measures restricting their employment, housing and access to welfare services.
4 Although beyond the scope of this article, the relationship between religion, football and identity is one which strongly characterises the social and cultural landscape in the west of Scotland.