Discuss about the Social Work for Non- Government Organizations.
Social work refers to a discipline of profession that aims the welfare of human beings individually or in groups or communities. The main objective of social work is to help people deal with various challenges in life and enhancement of well-being. It helps people in empowering people themselves, improves their socio economic status, and makes them aware about their basic human rights (Nelson, Price and Zubrzycki 2014) .Social work in NGO’s that is Non- Government Organizations for asylum seekers and refugees is very challenging and it helps them to provide various services for the betterment of their life and. They play an important role in improving their social life by developing intra-personal and inter personal relationships. They assist people in every possible manner and respond to their needs and demands in an appropriate manner. The profession of social workers involves various responsibilities to support various communities on a local, national and international level. Social justice helps in promoting basic needs and rights of the individuals, provides a proper access to social services and helps them in recognizing their rights. This essay deals with the role of social work that help asylum seekers and refugees in addressing various issues related to discrimination from other communities, justice and health problems.
An asylum seeker refers to an individual who has left the country he is originating from and has applied for asylum in the other country but is still waiting for the application process to get over. He has to make an application in the other country to stay there to get protection from the authorities..In Australia, there are two groups of asylum seekers, one group includes individuals who have arrived in an authorized manner and they are given a permission to live in the society when their application is under processing (Alam and Imran 2015). The authorities of the immigration department finds out whether his application will be accepted and the protection will be granted or not. The other group includes the individuals who have arrived in an unauthorized manner by boat or airplane. The asylum seeker is known as a refugee and given the status of a refugee. Sometimes the asylum is refused to a few individuals and they are called as refused asylum seeker. Hence, they return to their country of origin and are sometimes forced to go back by the immigration authorities. Asylum seekers and refugees have limited access to healthcare facilities and social care. They are not allowed to work in the other country and suffer from financial crisis since the process of application takes months or years to be completed (Correa?Velez, Barnett and Gifford 2015). Their personal rights in the other country are most of the times ignored and abused.
Social workers are playing an important role in addressing various problems and helping refugees and asylum seekers by making important contributions. They also deal with their problems related to grief and trauma by effective communication skills. They provide the kind of service as required by the asylum seekers and the refugees. They play an important role while working with asylum workers and refugees. Social workers respect and are empathetic towards the asylum seekers and refugees(Fell and Fell 2013). They work with various organizations and groups to achieve their objective and help their clients by coordinating and cooperating in an effective manner. It is their responsibility to protect the basic rights of the refugees and the asylum seekers and promote their safety aspects. They facilitate by collaborating with various agencies that help refugees and asylum seekers. They provide special counseling services to them and their family members to get rid of mental and other health issues. They also help in dealing with negative impact of trauma by developing a community. In the year 2015, Australia accepted 13,750 individuals as refugees and Australia plays an important role in protecting asylum refugees and seekers from abuses due to human rights (Hartley and Pedersen 2015).
There are various challenges and issues involved in social work for the asylum seekers and the refugees. A large number of asylum seekers from Indonesia reach Australia on boats by giving money to smugglers. This leads to large no of deaths of asylum seekers. The government has introduced various programs and policies to lower the no of boats from execution to stop illegal immigration of asylum seekers. It is very difficult to deal with them and counsel as they had suffered from trauma and depression due to some family issues in their home country like being tortured, separated from any family member and brain washed. Therefore, it becomes difficult for the asylum seekers to wait for months and years for the processing of documents since they are already suffering from mental issues. It was also reported that they experienced a low socioeconomic status. Around 33% of asylum seekers had issues in procuring health care services and around 80% asylum seekers suffered from torture (Lavalette and Penketh 2014). They suffer from poor health like diabetes, infection from intestinal parasites, tuberculosis, disabilities , deafness and muscle pain due to torture and harsh behavior. Asylum seekers and refugees are also held in detention in a few remote areas of Australia, which leads to a negative impact on the psychological status. Their children also suffer a lot and feel sad and hopeless in these situations. They need special care support and attention from their parents and other family members. Their basic rights are also exploited. It is the duty of social workers to help them in their problems related to money, finding job opportunities for their survival and avoid under- employment, finding a proper accommodation to stay and development of social network by helping family members and friends staying overseas. Asylum seekers who are women experience domestic violence, lack of proper education and financial crisis. They also face a lot of psychological distress because of female genital mutilation and lack of support, care and advice from extended family members. Refugees and asylum seekers of old age suffer from trauma, stress, impaired memory, and concentration issues. These old refuges are not given proper respect and their view points and skills are not given any value in Australia. This can lead to anxiety, stress, and depression in them and among the family members. They also suffer from isolation on asocial level and it is a common practice among the older asylum refugees and seekers( Lenette and Brough 2015).sTo prevent the crisis of asylum seekers at an international level it is crucial that countries like Australia do not implement such policies that harm asylum seekers and refugees.
There are various cultural issues involved in social work for asylum seekers and refugees as if they are discriminated based on different culture and ethnicity that is unfair. Social workers should understand in a proper manner and work effectively while providing their services to these individuals. They should work by following ethical principles and ideas and understand sensitivity of cultural differences. International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) has promoted these ethical principles that the social workers should respect all the individuals by empowering them without discriminating them based on caste, religion, socioeconomic status, race, color of skin, gender and sexual orientation. They should provide equal opportunity in providing their services by respecting their independence and helping them to know their basic rights.
Asylum Seekers and refugees came to Australia after the Second World War Germany and Eastern Europe, from Croatia, Africa, Kosovo, Ethiopia and Somalia during 1990’s. The first detention system was introduced in Australia in the year 1991 Port Hedland in the Western part of Australia and Villa wood in Sydney. In 1992, the Keating Government in Australia made detention mandatory for asylum seekers (Sampson 2015). During the year 2000, asylum seekers and refugees entered Australia from Somalia, Liberia, Sudan and Sierra Leone Australia has always been in the limelight for its tough policies for asylum seekers entering the country through boats and not allowing them to settle over there. The Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbot, stopped these boats and these policies were opposed by the human rights organization and called as in human. People arriving to Australia from boat has been increased from 2000 to 16,000 from 1992 to 2014.Arrival of boats in the country is one of the major issues for the government and it was told to the asylum seekers if they enter by boat they would not get permanent residence. In 2013, Abbott Government has shut down a large number of centers of immigration (Robinson 2013). During the detention, a large of no deaths of asylum seekers was reported and many of them were assaulted sexually. There was also the occurrence of riots in the detention centers. Immigration policies of detention in Australia have been opposed since many years.
There are various ethical issues involved in social work for asylum seekers in Australia present in the Code of Ethics by Australian Association of Social Workers. Social workers should promote their basic human rights and maintain their dignity. They should respect the beliefs, culture, desires and background of asylum seekers. They should value their knowledge of culture and experience and include them while taking any important decisions. They should recognize and respect the diversity of cultures and take an account of asylum seekers or refugees and their family members (Puvimanasinghe 2015). They should provide high quality of service to asylum seekers and refugees, and should bring a positive change, which will help, in the growth and development of asylum seekers. It is ethically not right to treat asylum seekers and refugees in a harsh manner. It is not justifiable for the government to discriminate people based on caste and race and treat them wrongly.
It can be concluded that asylum seekers and refugees should be treated humanely by the social workers and they should understand their needs and demands. Australia has a very strict detention system for asylum seekers and refugees and it should be brought to an end because it destroys the basic human rights of these individuals. Various asylum seekers enter the country in an illegal manner by boats and ships and are detained. They have not given proper facilities of healthcare, communication with their family members and friends. The journey taken by asylum seekers on boats is very dangerous and operated by criminals. Travelling by sea leads to death of many asylum seekers especially those who travel between Indonesia and Australia. Government of Australia has developed various measures and strategies to protect the rights of asylum seekers and refugees and has made strict policies to stop the boats in order to prevent illegal immigration. Social workers should help these asylum seekers and refugees in recognizing these rights and provides a proper access to social services. It is their ethical duty to work with commitment in providing social justice to asylum seekers and refugees.
References
Nelson, D., Price, E. and Zubrzycki, J., 2014. Integrating human rights and trauma frameworks in social work with people from refugee backgrounds. Australian Social Work, 67(4), pp.567-581.
Alam, K. and Imran, S., 2015. The digital divide and social inclusion among refugee migrants: A case in regional Australia. Information Technology & People, 28(2), pp.344-365.
Correa?Velez, I., Barnett, A.G. and Gifford, S., 2015. Working for a better life: Longitudinal evidence on the predictors of employment among recently arrived refugee migrant men living in Australia. International Migration, 53(2), pp.321-337
Fell, B. and Fell, P., 2013. Welfare across borders: A social work process with adult asylum seekers. British Journal of Social Work, p.bct003.
Hartley, L.K. and Pedersen, A., 2015. Asylum seekers and resettled refugees in Australia: Predicting social policy attitude from prejudice versus emotion. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(1), pp.179-197.
Lavalette, M. and Penketh, L. eds., 2014. Race, racism and social work: Contemporary issues and debates. Policy Press.
Lenette, C., Cox, L. and Brough, M., 2015. Digital storytelling as a social work tool: learning from ethnographic research with women from refugee backgrounds. British Journal of Social Work, 45(3), pp.988-1005.
Puvimanasinghe, T., Denson, L.A., Augoustinos, M. and Somasundaram, D., 2015. Vicarious resilience and vicarious traumatisation: Experiences of working with refugees and asylum seekers in South Australia. Transcultural psychiatry, 52(6), pp.743-765.
Robinson, K., 2013. Voices from the front line: Social work with refugees and asylum seekers in Australia and the UK. British Journal of Social Work, p.bct040.
Sampson, R.C., 2015. Caring, contributing, capacity building: Navigating contradictory narratives of refugee settlement in Australia. Journal of Refugee Studies, p.fev010.
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