Blurred Rights, Local Practices: Social Work and Immigration in Italy

Barberis, Eduardo; Boccagni, Paolo

doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcu041

Cited by 40 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Hall, Slembrouck, Haigh, and Lee () analyse how child welfare workers negotiate their professional role, showing that the ways professionals construct clients’ needs and attend to professional interventions are highly complex and socially negotiated. Barberis and Boccagni () concentrate on the role of professional social workers in managing immigrant clients’ needs against a background of residual welfare provision, inconsistent policy frameworks and piecemeal integration. Analysing encounters with irregular migrants in Sweden, Cuadra and Staaf () show how street‐level staff in public social services face contradictory demands concerning international and national regulations and, consequently, face legal ambiguities open to discretionary powers.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Van Berkel et al () emphasise the increased discretion of frontline workers in the context of activation and, given the low professional institutionalisation of activation work, the risks of highly individualised, unpredictable and non‐transparent practices. Barberis and Boccagni () and Cuadra and Staaf () describe the crucial role of street‐level workers in managing immigrant clients’ needs against the background of inconsistent and ambiguous policies and legislative frameworks. Carson et al () underline that implementation (also in the third sector) is more than just a passive individual process or a reaction to management decisions in the context of a linear causal process.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Meeting (or not) at the street level? A literature review on street‐level research in public management, social policy and social work

Nothdurfter

Hermans

2018

Int J Soc Welfare

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Nothdurfter U., Hermans K. Meeting (or not) at the street level? A literature review on street-level research in public management, social policy and social work This literature review analyses the adoption and development of a street-level perspective in public management, social policy and social work. The last years have seen a prominent revival of a perspective based on Michael Lipsky's streetlevel bureaucracy approach in the debates conducted within all three disciplinary fields. Based on 71 key publications in public management, social policy and social work, the review analyses the adoption of the street-level bureaucracy approach during the period 2005-2015, pointing out the main themes of the debate within, as well as overlaps and differences between, the three disciplines. The findings show the potential of better integrating the different perspectives and taking stock of the articulated debate. Lastly, the review discerns a common viewpoint for further street-level research, emphasising its importance for the critical analysis and understanding of street-level work as a vital dimension of responsive and accountable institutions and as a decisive moment to shape positive policy outcomes on the ground. Key Practitioner Message: • The use of discretion by frontline practitioners and their role as policy actors on the ground has become an important focus of research; • This literature review shows that the debate has gone far beyond discussing discretion as an all-or-nothing issue, pointing out both positive and negative aspects of discretion and developing comprehensive frameworks to explain the use of discretion at the street-level; • However, street-level research has traditionally rather neglected the notion of professionalism. The social work literature brings in the perspective of professionalism; more research efforts are needed to better explore and explain how professionalism matters in relation to challenges and dilemmas of different policy and practice fields.Although public management, social policy and social work are closely interrelated, their debates have been characterised by different perspectives as well as different theoretical and methodological approaches. Especially in relation to social policy and social work, it has been pointed out that, despite their mutual dependence, their relations are an underexposed matter and their perspectives and debates barely ever converge However, the prominent revival of Michael Lipsky's (1980/2010) street-level bureaucracy approach during the last 15 years has done much to identify a common feature of the debates in public management, social policy and social work. Lipsky's approach addresses the dilemmas faced by the individuals at the frontline of public services. An important contribution of Lipsky's approach is that he has highlighted how the use of discretion by street-level bureaucrats, the routines they establish, the devices Int J Soc Welfare 2018: 27: 294-304

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meeting (or not) at the street level? A literature review on street‐level research in public management, social policy and social work

Nothdurfter

Hermans

2018

Int J Soc Welfare

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“…Italy is a late comer in the development of a national reception system for asylum seekers; a decade late in comparison with other EU countries (Campesi, 2018;Marchetti, 2016). The reception was developed in response to emergencies without having strong prior experiences (Barberis and Boccagni, 2014). The system was reactive to changing contexts, without building a coherent vision of how to provide reception and integration.…”

Section: First Stages Of a Reception 'System': From Piecemeal To A Stmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking the Economics and the Governance of Reception of Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Other Migrants: The Case of Italy

Ricard-Guay

2019

SSRN Journal

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The significant numbers of arrivals through the Central Mediterranean route to Italy between 2014 and 2017 have put the Italian reception system under pressure, and pushed its rapid expansion. This paper examines how the governance of reception has evolved between 2011 and 2018, a time during which the reception system went through two major yet contrasting reforms while at the same time facing an emergency. Based on desk research and qualitative interviews with reception workers, the paper looks simultaneously at the interplay between the changes in terms of regulations, actors and modalities, and the economic aspects of reception governance. The paper adopts the concept of moral economy of reception, which enables to analyse the evolving context in which are differentiated those deserving and undeserving of reception, and the meaning attached to reception. The changes in the governance of reception has also brought changes in the moral economy of reception, shifting from some form of solidarity to discriminatory moral economy based on a hierarchy of deservedness.

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“…Almost all social workers nowadays encounter clients with a migration background and thus deal with migration and mobility issues (Barberis & Boccagni, 2014;Vuille, Bolzman, & Durrett, 2013). However, the concept of migration remains underexplored in social work research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transnational knowledge in social work programs: Challenges and strategies within assisted voluntary return and reintegration support

Lietaert

2017

Transnational Social Review

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The nexus between migration research and social work research led to interesting impulses to study transnational social work practices. However, the practical terms of being involved in crossborder programs are understudied. This article aims to transcend the preserving national and western-centric orientation in social work research by investigating assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR) support. Drawing on interviews and group discussions with social workers supporting returnees in host countries and countries of origin, I set out to reveal the challenges that this practice poses within the Belgian AVRR program. The findings showed that the Belgian social workers were confronted with a lack of transnational knowledge to fulfill their roles, resulting from a division between different practitioners within the support chain and the localization of the main focus of the support across borders. Furthermore, the data shed light onto the struggles with regard to social workers' positions within the program and towards its goals. For the Belgian social workers, this is related to their place within a restrictive migration policy. For the social workers in the countries of origin it was mainly linked to the transnational character of the program. Viewing these findings, I reflect on their implications for the provision of AVRR support and transnational support practices.

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Blurred Rights, Local Practices: Social Work and Immigration in Italy

Cited by 40 publications

References 12 publications

Meeting (or not) at the street level? A literature review on street‐level research in public management, social policy and social work

Meeting (or not) at the street level? A literature review on street‐level research in public management, social policy and social work

Rethinking the Economics and the Governance of Reception of Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Other Migrants: The Case of Italy

Transnational knowledge in social work programs: Challenges and strategies within assisted voluntary return and reintegration support

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