Social Work in a Multicultural Environment: Experience of Social Workers Working with Refugee Children and Their Families in Germany

Abstract

Multicultural social work practice creates the awareness of one’s value, bias, or assumptions, understanding of the worldviews of clients, developing of the right intervention strategy, and enhancing cultural competence. To better understand how social work in a multicultural setting is practiced, the research was conducted to explore the perception of social workers working with refugee children and their families in Germany. The main goal of this thesis was to analyze the challenges, intervention strategies and opportunities while working with refugee children and their families. Moreover, the thesis also explored the needs, rights and integration efforts for refugee children and their families. This thesis was carried out in Stuttgart, Germany with interviews as a data collection method conducted between May to June of 2021. The data collection targeted social work practitioners that have been working in the field of refugee social work for the past at least two years or more. The selection criteria were based on purposeful sampling techniques is used with a criterion-i sampling approach by identifying and selecting interviewees based on predetermined criteria. Semi-structured interviews were used to conduct the interview with 6 refugee social workers. The 4 interviews were conducted in person and 2 online using zoom platform. The interviews are recorded according to ethical agreements with participants and later was transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis method by NVivo software. The results show the need for social workers to be equipped to be organized, think critically, and become culturally competent to be effective to work in a multicultural environment. On the other hand, addressing the needs of refugee children and their families increases the overall satisfaction of living in the host country. The challenges faced by social workers in dealing with heavy caseloads, cultural differences, and refugee laws need special attention from different organization and governmental bodies by expanding the capacity and collaboration among different supporting systems. Finally, the study recommends providing reform on the current refugee laws, possibility to social work practitioners together in a fluid way, equal treatment of refugee children and their families without giving them a label based on their gender, nationality, or background.