Working with refugees and asylum seekers

Social work with asylum seekers and refugees is a complex and contested task, which is both challenging and immensely rewarding for those who choose to work in this field of practice. Working with this client group makes explicit the value base that social work shares with human rights, and it challenges workers to engage personally, intellectually, emotionally and politically. The work traverses traditional personal-professional identity divides as it provokes social workers to confront their own values and beliefs, particularly in an area where government rhetoric and policy exacerbates existing problems, contravenes principles of social justice and human rights, and frustrates the attempts of social workers to resolve individual and community issues.