Do the Right Thing�: How Can Social Workers Support Immigrants?

Background: Social workers have long served an essential role in supporting first- and second- generation immigrants to integrate and resettle in a new country. Yet, social workers often lack sufficient training specific to the needs of immigrant communities. This lack of training may be particularly detrimental, considering the escalated stress faced by immigrants in recent years of heightened exclusionary policies throughout much of the world and COVID-19. Further, immigrants often have unique culturally-specific needs, which social workers are unable to meet due to insufficient training on cultural responsiveness. In response, the present study was designed to explore ways in which social workers can best support immigrant communities.

Methods: Toward strengthening the knowledge base, the current study utilizes an open-ended question, “How can social workers support immigrant communities?” Data were drawn from a larger study of first- and second-generation immigrant adults (n=405) recruited from Qualtrics panels and a community-based sample, using non-probability and convenience sampling strategies. The full study survey included standardized measures to assess for stress associated with immigration policies under the Trump administration and COVID-19, resilience, and well-being. For the current study, content analysis methodology was utilized due to the brevity in responses for the single open-ended survey item. Four coders independently analyzed responses and met multiple times to finalize themes.

Results: A higher proportion of participants were first generation (51.7%), female (60.6%), with a mean age of 55.47 (SD = 18.34). The sample was racially diverse comprising East Asians (28.3%), White (24.0%), Black/White Latinx (21.4%), South Asian (14.2%), Black/African (4.0%), and Other (8.1%) participants. Results yielded seven key themes: 1) resources for immigrants (n=129); 2) support for immigrants (n=31); 3) advocacy (n=29); 4) stopping discrimination (n=19); 5) fair policies (n=18); 6) empathy for immigrants (n=17); and 7) cultural responsivity (n=16). Subthemes included employment, fulfilling basic needs, legal support and limited knowledge of rights in a new country. Participant quotes supported each theme to highlight the roles social workers can serve, such as “social workers should be more friendly and more accommodating to us new immigrants so that the new immigrants may feel welcome” and “can support immigrant communities by looking past our skin colors. We are all human.”

Conclusion: Findings contribute meaningfully to the knowledge base regarding immigrant perceptions of social work roles. Implications can be applied to the current and future workforce to better equip social workers for this work. Social work advocacy is another vital skill for social workers to develop, especially when it comes to immigration policies and immigrant rights. Social workers can promote enhanced access to services and support the healthy integration of immigrants in a new country. Building on the extant body of research and these results, future studies can explore immigrants’ micro- and macro-level needs with a national representative sample and by subgroups such as origin, age, and US geographic region.