Welfare Across Borders: A Social Work Process with Adult Asylum Seekers

Abstract

Although numbers of individuals seeking asylum in the UK have significantly reduced since the late 1990s ( House of Commons, 2007), it remains the case that people continue to flee conflicts, war and other ‘push’ factors, to seek sanctuary in a safer land. At the same time, border controls, particularly in Western countries such as the UK, have become ever more tightly controlled and policed with the apparent aim of excluding ‘outsiders’ ( Bohmer and Shuman, 2008; Friedman and Klein, 2008). The profession of social work has a long association of service to people in need. However, the prevailing academic discourse thus far, particularly in the UK context, largely depicts social workers, usually in the statutory sector, as collaborating with immigration controls that are accused of being inherently racist and exclusionary ( Humphries, 2004a, 2004b, 2004c; Hayes, 2005, 2009). In this paper, we suggest that the reality of social work with adult asylum seekers is much more complex, challenging and potentially transformative than a discourse of social workers as colluders with restrictive immigration controls implies. The authors, both qualified social workers, draw on their experiences of work with adult asylum seekers within a voluntary agency in north-west England. We argue that the approach of the work undertaken provides a useful template for social workers for hospitality-based practice in work with adult asylum seekers. This we feel to be consonant with the values that the profession purports to hold towards the people it serves.

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