The Influence of Cultural Sensitivity in Social Work Practice with Immigrants

Abstract

Despite the economic crisis, Spain is still a country with a large presence of foreign population, which requires the adjustment and adaptation of public services social services among them to this reality. Our objective is to understand and analyse the Intercultural Sensitivity levels of social workers in public social services in Andalusia (Spain), and relate them to elements of intercultural competence. Participants include 298 professionals from Andalusian community social services; 163 were social workers, on which this study focused. We have used the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (IS) in the context of a larger survey that measured other aspects such as the degree of intercultural contact and intercultural competence through different means. We analyse correlations between the dimensions of the IS and other variables, associations and comparisons of means (Student's t-test and ANOVA) for the whole sample and different variables considering only social workers. The data obtained show high SI, with significant differences related to previous training on cultural diversity, age and relationships with foreign people. The level of knowledge about diversity management in the surveyed population is very relevant, as well as training and relationships with immigrants. However, we think it is necessary to strengthen both training and interaction to advance the implementation of theoretical contents on the practice and interaction that take place in professional intervention.

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