Challenges for the Social Work Profession at a Time of a Global Migration Crisis: Is a New Social Work Curriculum Needed?
The global definition of the social work profession has impelled social work professionals to deal with the multiple challenges presented by the current global migration crisis. As such, we convened an international workshop that focused on the challenges for the social work profession in the face of the global migration crisis, and dealt with the question: Is a new social work curriculum needed? Specifically, the first day of the workshop was devoted to enhancing understanding of the social effects of current worldwide migration processes on the societies that host migrants, and on the effects of these processes on the people already living in these societies and on the migrants themselves. The second day focused on practice, and included field visits; and the third day focused on educational issues, and dealt with the desired social work curriculum and ways of researching and teaching. The workshop indicated that in light of the complexity of the topic, resources need to be allocated for the following purposes: (1) creating diverse theoretical learning spaces that are dynamic and can be applied toward instilling emotional and theoretical knowledge; (2) training staff to teach the topic that will enable students to learn in the field while conducting interventions at various levels – individual, family, community, and political.