From March 2002 NASW NEWS
Copyright ©2002, National Association of Social Workers, Inc.

Profession Has Global Role

Social Work's International Stature Is Explored

A strategy to make social work visible and respected internationally is needed, Mizrahi says.

By Peter Slavin, Special to NASW NEWS

Social workers can help "give globalization a human face." The answer to the question, "Should the United States be the world's social worker?" is, "Yes." Social work organizations can and do influence what the United Nations does. NASW needs to offer nonmilitary alternatives for dealing with terrorism. Members are doing international social work in the United States as well as overseas. These were among the points that several dozen social work thinkers and activists made when they met at NASW's national office in Washington, D.C., Feb. 1-2 to consider what social work could and should be doing in the international arena.

Noting that "many social workers and social work educators are committed internationalists," NASW President Terry Mizrahi called the meeting to start developing "a strategy to make social work a visible and respected force" internationally.

Leticia Diaz, the NASW staff member who organized the meeting, said that social workers are ahead of the organizations that represent them in understanding the importance of paying attention to international issues and finding ways to play viable roles internationally: "The practice is leading." Diaz pointed to Jamie Spector, a social worker and NASW member who during the war in Bosnia helped develop the practice of social work in that country. Howard University School of Social Work Dean Richard English noted that one of his colleagues, Professor Fariyal Ross-Sheriff, was in Pakistan organizing the repatriation of Afghan refugees.

Mizrahi said that recently, journalists — particularly columnist Tom Friedman of The New York Times — have been saying things about the United States like, "Who do you think we are, the social workers of the world?" Given that social workers value client and community self-determination and are skilled at mediating disputes, the United States could do a lot worse than adopt a social work approach to international relations, said Mizrahi.

She said one of her aims is to increase the influence and visibility of social workers in international affairs and bring their perspective to bear on international policy. She also wants to strengthen the links between NASW and the Canadian Association of Social Workers so that the North American region plays a bigger part in IFSW. Finally, she hopes to revitalize and connect two NASW committees, International Activities and Peace and Social Justice, so that the association exercises more leadership internationally.

Globalization has been misunderstood as a strictly economic phenomenon, observed Professor M. C. "Terry" Hokenstad of the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Hokenstad said globalization also has a social dimension, and social workers need to think about the equitable sharing of both its benefits and burdens so that the marginal sectors of society are not overlooked.

Hokenstad said the institutions that represent the social work profession internationally — IFSW and the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) — are fragile because of limited finances and staffing. He called for strengthening both so they can be more effective in their work with the U.N. Both have consultative status at the U.N., permitting them to advocate on such matters as development, refugees, health care, human rights, discrimination, children's rights and peacekeeping. Hokenstad, an IASSW representative to the U.N. who also holds a U.N. advisory position, was one of 15 outside experts who formulated the U.N. plan on aging.

He said the two social work organizations have done some useful things at the U.N., but much more could be done. One possibility, he said, is to influence members of the U.S. Government Mission to the United Nations; another is to lobby to get social workers into jobs involving children, mental health, aging and women's issues. Hokenstad noted that a senior official who works for U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan directing social policy and development is a social worker from Australia, and other social workers have worked for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees.

IFSW ambassador Suzanne Dworak-Peck called on NASW to revitalize its leadership of IFSW, which represents half a million social workers in 77 countries. Peck said that in the past NASW has made significant contributions to IFSW's work in areas ranging from human rights to ethics.

Those meeting at NASW said there is a dormant network of internationally minded social workers waiting to be alerted. "People are desperate to know who others are, what they're doing, how to contact them," said Michael Cronin of New York City, IFSW representative at the U.N.

Social workers who want to work overseas are looking to network over the Internet to find opportunities, said Harriet L. Lancaster, chair of the International Activities Committee. Lancaster advised them to think about non-traditional jobs that call upon their training in social and community development and community organization. She said there are plenty of such jobs overseas, as well as jobs in this country with an international side, especially work with immigrants and refugees.

The same point was made graphically by Marta Brenden of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Brenden told of a family of Iraqi refugees whose stern disciplining of a rebellious teenage daughter led to the sudden removal of six of their children by child protective services and charges of child abuse. Six months later, both their adolescent daughters were still in foster care.

Two cultures had clashed over child-rearing practices, Brenden observed. Speaking generally about child welfare services and foreign-born families, she said, "Services set up to help these families were wounding them, adding to their difficulties."

Underneath, she said, lay the unwarranted assumption that "refugee children settle themselves" and need no special assistance. The upshot of the Iraqi case was that ORR held a conference on the needs of refugee children and funded a new program to foster cooperation between private social service agencies and child welfare services in abuse and neglect cases involving refugees.

Bernice Bennett, senior program officer of American International Health Alliance, discussed how social workers are used in multidisciplinary health partnerships in the newly independent states, Central Europe and Eastern Europe. Participants in the NASW meeting showed great interest in becoming involved in the partnerships.

Dean English observed that enrollment in courses about refugee migration at Howard and other social work schools has dropped to a handful. "We've got a major job to do in convincing this profession that this is our domain and we've got to reclaim it," he declared.

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