This book can be read as a series of interconnected pieces of social work research exploring social work practice in the areas of migration and asylum across Europe. However, the aim of the volume is to produce a comparative analysis of contemporary social work practice in this complex and challenging area. It is also a reflection on how effective social practice is in the field and a source of reflection on how social work education programmes can contribute to train professionals. The volume can be viewed in four different ways:

• • A compilation. Twenty authors and collaborators, from nine countries reflect across the pages of this volume about the richness of research in this field from different perspectives and social work traditions as well as the range of approaches across Europe. All the chapters are original pieces of work and reflect the research that has been undertaken in the fields of migration: reception, integration, education and policy-making. Certainly, the academic perspective is prevailing and it would have been desirable to include direct perspectives from migrants, refugees and asylum seekers; this is something perhaps missed in the book and that will be very present in our next publications. However, it is important to highlight that most of the authors are both academics and social workers with fieldwork experience.

• • A magnifying glass. By reading its different chapters, it is possible to identify how authors go into depth and raise difficult issues that in most of the cases are silenced or not made public due to their high degree of controversy as they challenge the current state of the things regarding migration: policies, academia, organisations, European Union politics, institutional racism, neoliberal scheme and so on. The book sheds light on these matters and this is why this book is not only necessary but timely too.

• • A tool for comparative analysis on how migrants and asylum seekers are being treated in the countries of transit and/or destination, on the conditions they live in, on how their rights are (or not) safeguarded, on which initiatives are developed to make their lives more ‘liveable’ or on which good practices could be replicated and what bad uses should be avoided to promote their rights and dignity accordingly with the Global definition of social work.