Social workers as a mobile group of professionals

What is it about?

Social workers are professionals who might seek to use their qualifications to work in other countries for a variety of reasons. These could be career or personal reasons. However, unlike other professional skills, social work practice is very sensitive to the cultural context where a person first learnt and practiced. It is also very much linked to the way a certain language is used to address the social situation in hand. At the same time, many countries face challenges in recruiting the quality and quantity of social workers needed and some times countries seek workers from across the globe to fill such jobs. In Europe, and particularly England, immigration policies have been changing. Examining data and talking to British and European key people we explore these changes and their implications.

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Why is it important?

We provide an updates understanding of the contribution of European social workers to the English system and highlight that other Western European countries are also relying on Central and Eastern European social workers. We explore the challenges associated with different qualification system, languages and cultural contexts.

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