Social Work, Immigration and Asylum

The practical and ethical challenges facing human service professionals working with refugees, asylum seekers and other people subject to immigration controls are discussed in this book. The contributors explore the tensions that exist between anti-oppressive values and the role professionals increasingly play as 'gate keepers' to services.

This book is an important resource for those wishing to raise the profile of this area of practice in the social work curriculum.

Essential reading for social workers and social care practitioners currently working in the immigration field. This timely book encompasses so many issues and theories in just one publication and I certainly recognise the dilemmas and experiences discussed. It will definitely be on the reading list for our students. Buy the book!

This book is a collection of articles that discuss a timely, significant, under-reached and highly debatable topic in the UK. The distinctiveness of this book lies in its accessibility and practicality since many contributors are current practitioners reflecting on real-life challenges. A timely and stimulating book reflecting real life issues that needs to be debated and appreciated. The main attraction of this book is that it links theory with practice and many authors reflect real life experiences. I personally enjoyed reading it and would recommend it not only to practitioners supporting asylum seekers but also as a general read.

The authors challenge practitioners to consider their professional ethics and value base when faced with the very real day-to-day pressures to comply with oppressive policies instituted by government.

This publication is both welcome and timely as yet another Asylum and Immigration Bill makes its passage through Parliament. The book has been written specifically for social workers and acknowledges that there is a dearth of literature available in this area to provide practitioners with practical and ethical guidance. One of the book's strengths is that is not afraid to tell it how it is, providing the reader with poignant accounts of the malaise that has crept into social work practice as ethical considerations are swept aside by investigation, rationing, gatekeeping and surveillance. Nevertheless, all is not lost: the writers expound on models of good improved practice and exhort us to reconnect with our campaigning role and engage in much-needed debates about non-compliance. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Debra Hayes is a senior lecturer in the Department of Applied Community Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has worked with the Greater Manchester Probation Service. Since her time at Manchester Metropolitan University her research and writing has focused on immigration and asylum issues. Beth Humphries was a writer and researcher who practised, taught and studied social work for many years. She worked in universities across the UK, and her special research interest was in social work, immigration control and asylum. She published extensively in this field.