“An Especially Thankless Work”? Filtering Practices in Emergency Shelters and Ethical Dilemmas for Street-level Social Workers in Western Switzerland

Abstract

Based on an ethnographic survey conducted in services for the homeless in French-speaking Switzerland, this paper examines street-level social workers’ struggles between the implementation of official policies and their direct work with people. Beyond their common condition of homelessness, people looking for shelter are a very heterogeneous group: undocumented migrants and foreign workers rub shoulders with poor, local pensioners, or with persons suffering from drug addiction or mental illness. Guided by national and international residence and labour legislation, local authorities and institutions have their own policies – more or less strict in their exclusion of poor migrants – regarding the legitimate beneficiaries of a place in the emergency accommodation system. In this article, we analyse the encounters of street-level social workers with homeless people and examine the practical, value-based and ethical dilemmas they face, as well the use of their discretionary power in making more - or less - appropriate shelter available for destitute migrants.

Home Street Home. Experiences of Homelessness in a City in French-Speaking Switzerland

“…Nous nous basons sur une recherche en cours menée en Suisse romande depuis avril 2018 3 et sur des données recueillies jusqu'au mois de décembre 2019. À F, nous avons procédé par observations ethnographiques (environ 60 heures) en rue et dans plusieurs dispositifs de l'aide sociale d'urgence : un hébergement d'urgence nocturne, l'espace d'accueil de nuit non dormant, un espace d'accueil bas seuil ouvert le jour et une structure de santé mobile.2Cette question fait l'objet d'un autre article(Bertho et Martin, 2021). 3 Quels besoins ont les personnes sans abri ?…”