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Twelve - Readiness and regulation: perspectives of Canadian stakeholders on the labour mobility of internationally educated social workers
- Edited by Allen Bartley, The University of Auckland, Liz Beddoe, The University of Auckland
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- Book:
- Transnational Social Work
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 12 April 2022
- Print publication:
- 07 February 2018, pp 189-204
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Summary
Background
While the scholarly literature is sparse on data and analyses from social work employers in Canada, anecdotal accounts suggest that they are eager to hire social workers who come to the field of practice as seasoned professionals in both substantive content and contextual knowledge. They cite the fast pace of the work environment, the narrowing of service provision to only the most complex situations and dynamics, and the volume of the work as the driving forces behind needing new hires to ‘hit the ground running’ (Newberry-Koroluk, 2014). There is little time or energy for an accompanying adaptation process. These stories are not surprising given that, over the past 35 years, Canadian social work has been restructured to parallel the capitalist premises that good social welfare policy and programming is that which is productive and cost-efficient, with a focus on individualism and autonomy not only for service recipients, but also for employees. The joint ideologies of neoliberalism and economic rationalism prioritise productivity and deliverables, documentation, and external accountability. This is the context in which social work employers govern agency work, and into which internationally educated social workers enter when they arrive in Canada seeking to work in the field.
Similarly, there is little documentation on the experiences of regulators of the profession, those charged under legislation to enact the social work statutes in every province of Canada. As a self-regulating profession, the primary obligation is the protection of the public, which rationalises the driver for the uniformity of expectation and measurement of competence. In this chapter, we present data from both employers and regulators and seek to bring together their priorities and needs relative to the adaptation processes of internationally educated social workers.
Method
As part of a four-year federally funded study, Canadian researchers Pullen Sansfaçon et al engaged in qualitative interviews with 66 internationally educated social workers and held two Knowledge Exchange Fora (KEF), in Montreal and Halifax, respectively (Pullen Sansfaçon et al, 2012, 2014; Brown et al, 2015; Fulton et al, 2016). The KEF gathered social workers, both internationally and domestically educated, social work supervisors and employers, and representatives from the Quebec and Nova Scotia regulatory bodies. Data were collected via individual written reflections and focus group discussions. Focus group discussions were transcribed and analysed as components of the full data.
Eleven - Consistency and change: internationally educated social workers compare interpretations and approaches in Canada and their countries of origin
- Edited by Allen Bartley, The University of Auckland, Liz Beddoe, The University of Auckland
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- Book:
- Transnational Social Work
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 12 April 2022
- Print publication:
- 07 February 2018, pp 171-184
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter discusses findings obtained from interviews with 19 foreign-educated social workers who took part in a larger qualitative study aimed at understanding professional adaptation to social work practice in Canada. One of the research questions, explored in the context of the larger-scale project, was to investigate how social work experience and education in one country affects perspectives on social work practice in Canada – specifically, the assessment of client issues, social work intervention processes and interactions within the work environment. Following an iterative process whereby data were collected and then analysed in order to inform subsequent phases of data collection, we developed vignettes drawn from clinical cases. During this stage of data collection, we asked the participants to draw upon their knowledge, skills and values, and to reflect on their interpretations of each case's needs relative to the material and discursive conditions of their practice context, both in their country of origin and in Canada. This chapter analyses these data with a focus on knowledge transfer to internationally educated social workers who now work in Canada.
Transferability of social work
The profession of social work exists in a state of tension at the crux of several compelling forces: the familiar adage that practice is context-specific, referring to the need to understand the lived conditions of the people with whom we work, geopolitically and socioculturally; the substantive area of practice; and the notion of basic human needs that transcend time and space.
The capacity for social workers to transfer knowledge from one context to another is an important aspect of negotiating this tension, and is known to be an important aspect of professional adaptation overall (Remennick, 2003). Capacity to transfer knowledge may be facilitated by the fact that social work has access to ‘Global standards’ for practice (IFSW, 2012) and ‘Global standards for social work education and training’ (IASSW, 2004), which, for countries like Canada, might ensure a certain consistency in education and practice with other countries that adhere to these same principles through their professional associations and regulatory bodies. That said, not all countries adhere to these principles, and when they do so, they might have different standards of accreditation for social work practice and education. With regard to education, differences between countries at the level of standards or programme curricula are highly possible.
Four - A complicated welcome: social workers navigate policy, rganisational contexts and sociocultural dynamics following migration to Canada
- Edited by Allen Bartley, The University of Auckland, Liz Beddoe, The University of Auckland
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- Book:
- Transnational Social Work
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 12 April 2022
- Print publication:
- 07 February 2018, pp 55-72
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Summary
The context of immigration to Canada
Canada prides itself on a reputation for being a welcoming and inclusive country, promoting collective pride in a multicultural mosaic wherein a diversity of ethnicities, cultures and religions coexist. It is a country that often enjoys positive international assessment, with its reported comfortable standard of living, solid social programmes, mix of urban and rural lifestyles, vast and spectacular natural beauty, and people often considered polite and consensus-driven. It is also a country with a growing density divide between urban growth and rural out-migration, an ageing demographic, and regional variability in population growth (Statistics Canada, 2012). This scenic land of opportunity has evident appeal to immigrants leaving their countries of origin for a variety of social, economic and political reasons.
The Canadian government, reciprocally, views the newcomer to Canada as providing an answer to sustaining the country's demographic and economic growth. Under both Liberal and Conservative Party leadership, the Canadian government has sought to liberalise its labour and trade markets through policies including the North America Free Trade Agreement and programmes such as those designated for temporary foreign workers, skilled trade workers and professional immigrants (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2014). These efforts are considered to have been successful. For example, the Migrant Integration Policy Index determined that Canadian immigrant workers and their families benefit from the third-best integration policies in the 31 countries considered, citing specific government efforts towards improving equal access in education and labour (Migrant Integration Policy Index III, 2011). The International Migration Outlook, published in 2013 by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), cites immigration as accounting for two thirds of Canada's population growth of 1.2%, primarily in the age bracket of 20–44 years, which is otherwise in decline. It is this cohort that contributes significantly to the labour force, grows families, buys homes and forms the basis of taxation revenue (OECD, 2013). Canada reached a record high of 281,000 new permanent residents to Canada in 2010, followed by 249,000 new permanent residents to Canada in 2011 (OECD, 2013). Further, employment for foreign-born Canadians in 2012 earned Canada the ranking of third-highest in the OECD (OECD, 2013). This government priority continues.
thirteen - Maximising research outcomes for trans children and their families in Canada using social action and other participatory methods of inquiry
- Edited by Julie Fish, De Montfort University, Leicester, Kate Karban, University of Bradford
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- Book:
- LGBT Health Inequalities
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 11 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 18 March 2015, pp 223-236
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Introduction
‘To me it's really that, it's that the person who has a gender creative child or trans child or fluid or whatnot, is not going to be shoved or pushed by the medical community or the school community or social services and get their kid taken away. Like that was my biggest fear at that point when I started out, was that my kid was going to be taken away.’ (Akiko Asano, President of Gender Creative Kids Canada, 8 May 2013)
Akiko Asano is a single parent of two children, the youngest of whom, Mat, who was born a biological boy, identifies as trans. Now aged 15, Mat was just two when she began to show a strong preference for wearing dresses and playing with dolls, and began to live as a girl full time at the age of four. Although many in Akiko's community were supportive of her parenting, not all were, and when Mat was about six, Akiko was briefly investigated by social services. The complaint? That Akiko was trying to change her child's ‘sexual orientation’. Although the case was quickly dismissed, many other North American families have not been so lucky. Indeed, although there is still limited evidence, some children have been forcibly removed from the care of parents who allow their children to live in accordance with their felt sense of gender (see Manning et al, forthcoming, for a discussion of child apprehension prompted by a child's gender non-conformity).
A growing body of scholarship suggests that childhood gender non-conformity is a natural part of human diversity. Indeed, research suggests that between 2.3% and 8.3% of children (Moller et al, 2009, pp 118-19) engage in varying degrees of cross-gender dress and behaviour, and of those, a small number will end up following through with gender change interventions later on in their lives (Meyer, 2012). The problem is, Western society continues to be structured on the basis of a gender binary in which a child's failure to conform to their assigned birth sex, has often resulted in the pathologisation of parent and child (Langer and Martin, 2004). The fact that another member of Akiko's community viewed her parenting as ‘harmful’ and thus requiring state intervention, suggests the degree to which gross misunderstandings about gender identity continue to prevail.