Working with young people from refugee backgrounds in Australia
Author(s)
Ingamells, Ann
Westoby, Peter
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2008
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Social workers who are new to working with young people who are refugees may feel overwhelmed, out of their depth and inclined to defer to the powerful psychiatric profession. Arguing a role for social work engagement with young people as they face the personal, social, communal, cultural, political and economic challenges of settlement, this paper proposes a reflexive, deconstructive approach within a broadly ecological model. All settlement tasks require mediation through the powerful discourse (language, values, constructs, social practices) of both the young person's own community and those of the new context. Creating ...
View more >Social workers who are new to working with young people who are refugees may feel overwhelmed, out of their depth and inclined to defer to the powerful psychiatric profession. Arguing a role for social work engagement with young people as they face the personal, social, communal, cultural, political and economic challenges of settlement, this paper proposes a reflexive, deconstructive approach within a broadly ecological model. All settlement tasks require mediation through the powerful discourse (language, values, constructs, social practices) of both the young person's own community and those of the new context. Creating spaces where young people can identify and negotiate the forces vying to shape them underpins and complements the urgent task of combating racism and ethnocentricity in Australian institutions.
View less >
View more >Social workers who are new to working with young people who are refugees may feel overwhelmed, out of their depth and inclined to defer to the powerful psychiatric profession. Arguing a role for social work engagement with young people as they face the personal, social, communal, cultural, political and economic challenges of settlement, this paper proposes a reflexive, deconstructive approach within a broadly ecological model. All settlement tasks require mediation through the powerful discourse (language, values, constructs, social practices) of both the young person's own community and those of the new context. Creating spaces where young people can identify and negotiate the forces vying to shape them underpins and complements the urgent task of combating racism and ethnocentricity in Australian institutions.
View less >
Journal Title
European Journal of Social Work
Volume
11
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2008 Taylor & Francis. Please refer to the journal link for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Counselling, Welfare and Community Services
Social Work