Social Work With Immigrants and Refugees: Legal Issues, Clinical Skills, and Advocacy

Features practical applications covering the intersection of legal and social services

Using a foundational, institutional, and population-based approach illustrated with concrete examples, this innovative text will aid readers in the development of policy analysis skills, advocacy tools, and communication skills needed to work effectively with immigrants and refugees throughout the United States. The updated third edition includes four new chapters examining refugees and asylum, cultural humility and advocacy focused nonprofit organizations, public health and immigrants, and immigration and housing-areas that have recently seen extensive policy changes in practice and at the state and federal levels. Major updates throughout this solution-oriented text focus on how to enact positive systemic changes and include an extensive reorganization of the text to facilitate ease of use.

The text provides specific information about how to engage immigrant clients and how to help them navigate the complicated and often unwelcoming American educational, health, housing, and criminal justice systems. The book also addresses ways to advocate for immigrants and refugees in micro, mezzo, and macro settings and information on at-risk groups such as women, children, and elderly. Chapters feature learning objectives, case studies with discussion questions, and additional resources including sample documents. Instructors will also welcome a customizable sample syllabus and chapter PowerPoints. Purchase includes digital access for use on most mobile devices or computers.

New to the Third Edition:

• New chapters exploring refugees and asylum, cultural humility and advocacy focused nonprofit organizations, public health and immigrants, and immigration and housing
• Examines in depth how to enact positive systemic changes
• Provides an overview of immigration categories with a focus on highly vulnerable refugees and asylees
• Up-to-date immigration policy information
• Updates to federal government benefits and programs for immigrant workers

Key Features:

• Combines direct social service, systems change advocacy, and immigration strategies
• Integrates social work and immigration law, perspectives on health, mental health, education, employment, housing, and more
• Focuses on practical skills reinforced through case studies
• Examines the needs of specific at-risk immigrant population including refugees, women, children, and older adults
• Supports social work competencies essential for CSWE accreditation

Fernando Chang-Muy, MA, JD, is the Thomas O'Boyle Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law, with appointments at the Graduate School of Social Policy and Practice and the School of Arts and Sciences. His courses and areas of expertise include international human rights, US immigration policies, international refugee law, the impact of race in diverse communities, and nonprofit leadership issues. He served as Legal Officer with both the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN World Health Organization (WHO), AIDS Program. He also served as the first director of Swarthmore College's Intercultural Center, as well as Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, advisor to the Provost on Equal Opportunity, and lecturer on International Human Rights in the Peace and Conflict Studies. He began his legal career as a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia serving as Director of the Southeast Asian Refugee Project, providing free legal aid to low-income immigrants and refugees in Philadelphia.

Elaine Congress, DSW, MSW, is Professor and Associate Dean at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service. At the United Nations she represents three NGOs (Non-government Organizations), the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), the Institute of Multicultural Counseling and Education Services (IMCES), and Fordham University. Each year she oversees a group of Fordham graduate students at the United Nations. Dr. Congress is also a member of the executive committee of the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, is Vice-chair of the NGO Committee on Mental Health and is active on the NGO Committee on Migration and the Committee on the Status of Women. She has served as the North American representative on the IFSW's Permanent Committee on Ethical Issues.