Seventh Annual Social Work Action Network Conference (SWAN) What happened to anti racist social work? Friday, March 30 th 2012 Dr Rhetta Moran

Seventh Annual Social Work Action Network Conference (SWAN)

What happened to anti racist social work?

Friday, March 30th 2012

Dr Rhetta Moran

• It’s alive and kicking!

…and it needs to be…

Racism, Asylum and Social Work

Political-Legal-Ideological context

Theoretical framework underpinning our work

Researching in action: intervening, exposing, organising…

Case study example

POLITICAL-LEGAL-IDEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK

Before 1997 – Labour Govt said little about Asylum and Immigration….6 lines in the 1997 party manifesto

Political landscape is transformed by 2003

What happened in between?


1999 - Accommodation continues to be available to people failed by asylum system but cash is stopped


1999 - Accommodation continues to be available to people failed by asylum system but cash is stopped

2000 – NASS takes over responsibility for asylum system


1999 - Accommodation continues to be available to failed asylum seekers but cash is stopped


2001 – Jack Straw moots concept of “overhauling” 1951 UN Convention on Human Rights (refugees vs. asylum seekers)


1999 - Accommodation continues to be available to failed asylum seekers but cash is stopped


2001 – Jack Straw moots concept of “overhauling” 1951 UN Convention on Human Rights (refugees vs. asylum seekers)

2001 Intolerance of refugees and asylum seekers isparticularly acute in the UK (Council of Europe Racism Commission Report, 2001, BBC News 03.04.01. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1257321.stm)

2001 [CRE is ] failing to challenge the creation of newstructures of discrimination that provide the ideological space in which racism towards asylum seekers becomes culturally acceptable”

CARF, 2001. License to hate. Campaign Against Racism and Fascism 62. June-July . www.carf.demon.co.uk/feat52.html


March 2002 - Asylum seekers prohibited from working


March 2002 - Asylum seekers prohibited from workingEffectively makes legal entry to claim asylum impossible…legitimating concept of asylum seeker as ‘illegal’

The Star and the News of the World begin talking about people seeking asylum as “this scum” …

focus is on Sangatte…closing it…ideology of the border

However, before the media campaign (2002 onwards), despite marked increase in numbers of people claiming aslum, % of people who put it as their main concern in single figures

(Dean M (2011). Democracy under attack. Policy Press)


March 2002 - Asylum seekers prohibited from working

The Star and the News of the World begin talking about people seeking asylum as “this scum”…focus is on Sangatte

December 2002 - of 40 organisations working with people seeking asylum in England and Scotland, 85% reported to the Refugee Council that clients experienced hunger



26th Jan 2003 – 40000 of 240000 people with failed asylum applications deported….Tony Blair’s response:

“If the measures that we’re taking … just coming into effect now … if those measures don’t work [i.e. destitution for newly arriving people] then we have to consider further measures, including fundamentally looking at the obligations we have under the convention of human rights.”

BBC Breakfast with Frost. BBC Breakfast with Frost Interview: Prime Minister Tony Blair. January 26th, 2003.


• February 2003 – Blair announces intention to halve asylum numbers within six months…. projected figures based on 2002 new rules and Sangatte closure

POLITICAL-LEGAL-IDEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK Joint Committee of Human Rights, 2003:

“We believe that it is absurd to refuse leave to remain to people who, for whatever reason cannot be removed. Werecommend that such people be granted a temporary status which will allow them to support themselves.”

POLITICAL-LEGAL-IDEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK Joint Committee of Human Rights, 2003:

“We believe that it is absurd to refuse leave to remain to people who, for whatever reason cannot be removed. Werecommend that such people be granted a temporary status which will allow them to support themselves.”

“It is difficult to envisage a case where a person could be destitute without there being a threat of violation of Articles 3 and 8 of the European Commission of Human Rights”


Joint Committee of Human Rights, 2003:

“We believe that it is absurd to refuse leave to remain to people who, for whatever reason cannot be removed. We

recommend that such people be granted a temporary status which will allow them to support themselves.”

“It is difficult to envisage a case where a person could be destitute without there being a threat of violation of

Articles 3 and 8 of the European Commission of Human Rights”

• Continuous and deepening violations since 2003… compounded by illegal warfare NOT social welfare







• Continuous and deepening violations since 2003… compounded by illegal warfare NOT social welfare increasingly profound socioeconomic divisions







• Continuous and deepening violations since 2003… compounded by illegal warfare NOT social welfare increasingly profound socioeconomic divisions attacks on multiculturalism







• Continuous and deepening violations since 2003… compounded by illegal warfare NOT social welfare increasingly profound socioeconomic divisions attacks on multiculturalism rise of the far right

MATERIAL REALITY NOW

World Asylum claims at highest level since 2003.



The number of refugees seeking sanctuary in the world's richest countries rose 20% last year, says UN.




Afghans - more than 35,700 Afghans asked for asylum last year in the 44 industrialised countries surveyed,

a one-third increase on 2010.

Followed by Chinese and Iraqis




Afghans - more than 35,700 Afghans asked for asylum last year in the 44 industrialised countries surveyed,

a one-third increase on 2010.

Followed by Chinese and Iraqis

• Overall, asylum applications to the 44 industrialised countries surveyed rose 20% in 2011, to 441,300 from 368,000 the previous year. (Guardian newspaper)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/27/asylum-claims-highest-since-2003?newsfeed=true



Meta-theory: language creation from below (3)Volosinov (1986 (1929)), disappeared in 1930’s Stalinist purges:


- Experience of human reality is communicated through language


- Experience of human reality is communicated through language- Critical purpose of language is to communicate


- Experience of human reality is communicated through language- Critical purpose of language is to communicate - Reality is both objective and intersubjective


- Experience of human reality is communicated through language- Critical purpose of language is to communicate- Reality is both objective and intersubjective- Intersubjective (between people) reality is fundamentally affected by socioeconomic[cultural] position


- Experience of human reality is communicated through language- Critical purpose of language is to communicate- Reality is both objective and intersubjective- Intersubjective reality is fundamentally affected by socioeconomic(cultural) position- Competing views of reality held by different population groups co-exist in space and time


- Experience of human reality is communicated through language- Critical purpose of language is to communicate- Reality is both objective and intersubjective- Intersubjective (between people) reality is fundamentally affected by socioeconomic[cultural] position- Competing views of reality held by different population groups co-exist in space and time- Continual process of struggle, ‘contest’, over what the dominant meaning of reality is, and over means of communicating reality


- Experience of human reality is communicated through language- Critical purpose of language is to communicate- Reality is both objective and intersubjective- Intersubjective (between people) reality is fundamentally affected by socioeconomic[cultural] position- Competing views of reality held by different population groups co-exist in space and time- Continual process of struggle, ‘contest’, over what the dominant meaning of reality is, and over means of communicating reality- What comes to prominence results from the contest: it is a refraction, not reflection, of reality


- Experience of human reality is communicated through language- Critical purpose of language is to communicate- Reality is both objective and intersubjective- Intersubjective (between people) reality is fundamentally affected by socioeconomic[cultural] position- Competing views of reality held by different population groups co-exist in space and time- Continual process of struggle, ‘contest’, over what the dominant meaning of reality is, and over means of communicating reality- What comes to prominence results from the contest: it is a refraction, not reflection, of reality

- How has this approach helped to shape the way we approach social work?

Physical Context: Social- economic- cultural- political

Material conditions, specifically situated in time and space:e.g. housing, employment, mix of people, form of government



Dominant Ideologies

Super-ordinate, refracted views about asylum seeking



Dominant Ideologies


Communicative action between people about asylum

Contests over who is the person seeking asylum & why are they



Dominant Ideologies



PERSON SEEKING ASYLUMThe ‘inner speech’

deriving from their lived experienceSOCIAL WORKER/PERSON WITH

CITIZENSHIP/STATUS




Dominant Ideologies



PERSON SEEKING ASYLUMTheir ‘inner speech’,

deriving from their lived experienceSOCIAL WORKER/PERSON WITH

CITIZENSHIP/STATUS

Action/Language Language/ActionPAR PAR


RAPAR’s Evolution2000-2001: ground level reactions to forced

dispersal

RAPAR’s evolution2000-2001: ground level reactions to forced

dispersal

2001-2002: pre 9/11, refugees, academics, practitioners organise together and create a limited company and registered charity


dispersal


2002-2007: Salford based. Action Learning Model that tracks the practical consequences of the policy (international and national ) trajectory


dispersal


2002-2007: Salford based. Action Learning Model that tracks the practical consequences of the policy (international and national ) trajectory

2003-2005: Concerted efforts to shut RAPAR down…..coinciding with the war against Iraq

RAPAR’s evolution2000-2001: ground level reactions to forced dispersal

2001-2002: refugees, academics, practitioners organise together and create a limited company and registered charity

2002-2007: Salford based. Action Learning Model

2003-2005: Concerted efforts to shut RAPAR down…..coinciding with the war against Iraq

2007- now: City Centre Manchester. Starting from the lived experience of the person who is a refugee – work out, with them, how to set out what they need and how to make it happen

RAPAR Casework (ACT) Example

• Referred via London

• Woman, late 30’s, 5th floor flat, outskirts Manchester

• Seven years in UK, refused almost 2 years ago

• 2 years old, very sick, child with British father – estranged

• On section 4 support, in receipt of voucher not cash

Presenting Issues• Accommodation: stairs, no washing

machine, no hoover• Isolation: physical (support groups) and

organisational (advocacy/interagency working)

• Child’s treatment adherence and management: keeping/reaching appointments; alerting health system when needed

• Mental Health (Mother)• Paediatric Development (Child)• Immigration case without a legal

representative

RAPAR Casework (ACT) ExampleWhat do we do?

The presenting client is living their complexity

– enable them to re-present that complexity, to themselves and you in the first instance, in writing, in a structured, chronological, detailed, and documentarily evidenced way


The presenting client is living their complexity– enable them to re-present that, to themselves and

you in the first instance, in writing, in a structured, chronological, detailed, and documentarily evidenced way

Explore• Overarching Context/Environment:

» Reasons for the “push” factors that led to flight from home

» UK Legal status as sub-human

RAPAR Casework (ACT) ExampleWhat do we do?The presenting client is living their complexity– enable them to re-present that, to themselves and




» UK Legal status as sub-human• Self – confidence and Sense of Self Worth

» Who are they?» What can they do?» Who can they work with?


The presenting client is living their complexity– enable them to re-present that, to themselves and






• Material bases of the health needs

RAPAR Casework (ACT) ExampleWhat do we do?The presenting client is living their complexity– enable them to re-present that, to themselves and you in

the first instance, in writing, in a structured, chronological, detailed, and documentarily evidenced way





• Material bases of the health needs• Whether and how to use the legal framework


The presenting client is living their complexity– enable them to re-present that, to themselves and you in the first

instance, in writing, in a structured, chronological, detailed, and documentarily evidenced way


» Reasons for the “push” factors that led to flight from home» UK Legal status as sub-human

• Self – confidence and Sense of Self Worth» Who are they?» What can they do?» Who can they work with?

• Material bases of the health needs• Whether and how to use the legal framework• Whether and how to profile their

circumstances publicly


The presenting client is living their complexity– enable them to re-present that, to themselves and you in the first instance, in

writing, in a structured, chronological, detailed, and documentarily evidenced way


» Reasons for the “push” factors that led to flight from home» UK Legal status as sub-human

• Self – confidence and Sense of Self Worth» Who are they?» What can they do?» Who can they work with?

• Material bases of the health needs• Whether and how to use the legal framework• Whether and how to profile their circumstances publicly• Where they fit into the big picture and who else is there? -

YOU

Act with Compassion and Tenacity

Working Together to Achieve Equal Human Rights

Contact details:

RAPARFriends Meeting House6 Mount StreetManchesterM2 5NSUK

E: [email protected]/F: 0044-161-834-8221

W: www.rapar.org.uk

Registered Charity 1095961 Company Limited by Guarantee 04387010

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.rapar.org.uk/

Documents

Seventh Annual Social Work Action Network Conference (SWAN) What happened to anti racist social work? Friday, March 30 th 2012 Dr Rhetta Moran