Social Work with Diverse Populations: Towards Cultural Competence

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Social Work with Diverse Populations Towards
Cultural Competence

• Immigrants and Refugees as Exemplars

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• Terms to remember
• Immigrant someone who moves to another country
  for the purpose of settling there permanently.
• Asylum (asylee) protected status granted on a
  case-by-case basis to persons who can
  substantiate serious, or life-threatening
  political persecution.
• Refugees people who flee country out of a fear
  of persecution, based on religion, race,
  nationality, etc.

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The Good News about Immigration..

• Immigrants contribute to the diversity of our
  country
• Many take jobs that native-born citizens wont,
  but are needed to fuel our economic engine.
• Each immigrant produces a net revenue gain to
  government

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And the not so good

• Many are illegal, and vulnerable to exploitation
• Taxpayers in high-immigrant states pay more in
  taxes for government services (e.g. health care
  and schools).

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The Bottom Line on Immigration

• Impact on state/local treasuries (lifetime
  cost) -25,000.00
• Impact on federal treasury (lifetime)
• 105,000
• (total net impact 80,000.00)

• lt high school education -13,000.
• High school grad 51,000.00
• gt High school 198,000.00
• (Net gain from education 80,000.00)
• (Source NAS, 1997)

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What do newly emigrated persons need?What do
Immigrants Need?1. Cultural orientation(includ
es answers to questions, what can I expect here?
How is your culture different from mine?)2.
Sponsorship(how will I obtain employment,
housing, food?)3. Advocacy (who will help to
translate this new world to me, and vice versa?)
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And what do social workers need?

• Cultural Competency refers to the ability of
  organizations and systems (practitioners) to
  function and perform effectively in
  cross-cultural situations. (Cross 1989 Kunisawa
  1988 Sue et al, 1992)
• Culturally competent practice looks different,
  depending upon the circumstances of exit from
  country of origin.

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What does culturally competent communication look
like?

• Language and nonverbal communication (check for
  cover terms)
• Knowledge of cultural practices and beliefs
• Knowledge of the role of family members in health
  care decision-making
• Check for what client knows/expects of the
  system
• Be a skillful intermediary, able to explain
  culture and complexity of our system
• Value diversity embrace the role of cultural
  anthropologist
• Bilingualism (or translation resources)