Compulsory and elective courses

Objectives

After completing the course, students shall be able to:

• analyse key aspects of migration policies in a Scandinavian welfare state context from a comparative perspective
• critically discuss ethics of social work as a response to vulnerability and how migration policies influence social work practice as well as the living conditions of particular individuals and groups
• apply a critical and intersectional analysis of social change, social rights, and social work practice with people with migrant and refugee backgrounds
• critically assess ambivalences in social work between care and control, personal and professional encounters, and the impact of power relations in social work practices and institutions in the context of migration.

Content

This course focuses on social work institutions and practices and how they are guided by migration­/social­/public policies as well as ethical considerations. The course engages with four main issues central to social work:

1. social work as a response to people’s vulnerability
2. the control/care dilemma
3. social work as a method of enhancing social rights and belonging as well as fostering social wellbeing and change
4. professional encounters and treatment in context of postcolonial migration.