Social Work with Asylum Seekers and Refugees: Making a Difference

This book provides a comprehensive picture of social work with both asylum-seeking adults and children, and people recognised as refugees in Britain. It draws directly from practice experience and uses a range of methods to convey the immediacy of front-line work with a group of people whose reasons for being here are still only vaguely understood by many in the social work profession and beyond. Supportive social work with asylum seekers and refugees in both the voluntary and state sectors is seen to have a vital role in the lives of people who are often considered to be unwelcome and unwanted by the state, and who are regarded with suspicion and hostility by the general population compounded by negative portrayal in the media. The authors discuss the wider political and social contexts of asylum-seeking and its causes in the inequalities of wealth which exist between the global North and South, coupled with the persecutory regimes and conflict prevalent in many areas of the world. This book will be essential reading for all social workers and social work students who are increasingly likely to encounter asylum seekers and refugees in their practice.