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Category: Communication

Description: Social workers are finding it hard to work in an environment where politics influence the work they do especially with Migrants. Recent electoral research demonstrating that recent general elections in most European countries have been decided based on which party’s voters expect to deliver the highest standards of restrictive immigration policy. The aim of the study was to contribute to research on analysing and understanding the impact that the current political discourse with regards to migrants has on social work practice with this population group. The following research questions were devised in order to explore the impact that the current political discourse has on social work practice with migrants: 1. What is the current political discourse with regards to migrants?; 2.What influence does the current political discourse on migrants have on social work practice?; 3.When working with migrants, are social workers able to work in line with the values and ethics of the profession under the current political discourse? The study adopted case study research design and purposive sampling was used to identify social workers from various agencies in Aalborg City. The study used primary data to gather the required information from respondents using a semi-structured interview guide, the data was analysed using thematic method. The study found out that there is a negative political discourse regarding migrants in Denmark; creates the notion of ‘us versus them’, erosion of Danish culture, waste of resources, media domination. The study concludes that that social workers should address specific needs of minorities such as migrants, researchers need to rethink the foundation of welfare state from the perspective of migration and diversity as cultural diversity, Integration of migrants can only succeed if discrimination and devaluation of what Danes consider non-European is addressed through multicultural policies on a National level. The study recommends that Social workers need to start challenging the existing unjust policies being implemented by government when it comes to social assistance given to migrants. Going forward, focus needs to be on improving best practices when working with migrants and other marginalized groups.