The underlying frame of social work is the nation state, and it is from within the state that welfare strategies and social policies are devised and implemented. However, post-colonialism, globalisation, migration and the associated implications for human rights, social justice and social welfare policies contest the idea of a clearly defined space for social work and present new challenges for researchers and practitioners. Transnational Social Work and Social Welfare argues for the increased importance of the transnational perspective in social work theory and practice. The book challenges the idea of the nation state as a given entity and argues that globalization and an increasing number of people crossing borders must have an impact on the theories and strategies of social work. The international contributors are critical of a restricted focus on a geographically defined space and the impact on work with clients. With cases covering China, France, India, UK, Germany, Malaysia, Israel, Turkey, the book highlights the challenges as well as the opportunities this new perspective can open up for theories and strategies in social work. It will be of interest to students, researchers and social workers interested in migration, social care, poverty and cultural competency in health and social care.

Transnational Social Policy highlights the changing face of social policy and social work against the background of accelerating transnationalization of economies, labour markets, education, social services, and care. The contributions of this book provide unique case examples on the interplay of social policies, mobile populations, and travelling knowledge about welfare within an increasingly asymmetrical global context. This innovative volume also includes historical studies on the transformations of social policies during the last century and reflects the developments of social welfare across the Global North and the Global South. With its emphasis on theoretical assumptions of policy translation, the case studies show the importance of adjustments, negotiations, and participation of various actors in the transnational social field of welfare production. Thus, within ever-shifting contexts of new political agendas promoting the free play of the market and a neoliberal agenda of competition and austerity, this insightful book reveals new transnational forms of social exclusion that function within, across, and in-between nation-states. Presenting a major and much needed addition to current discussions on globalization and the increasing complexity of worldwide social relations, this volume will be of interest to scholars and graduate students interested in fields such as Social Policy, Social Work, Public Administration, Development Studies, Political Science, and Sociology, as well as many interdisciplinary fields including Global Studies, International Development Studies, and Immigration and Settlement Studies.

A growing number of people immigrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, displaced individuals, and families lead lives that transcend national boundaries. Often because of economic pressures, these individuals continually move through places, countries, and cultures, becoming exposed to unique risk and protective factors. Though migration itself has existed for centuries, the availability of fast and cheap transportation as well as today's sophisticated technologies and electronic communications have allowed transmigrants to develop transnational identities and relationships, as well as engage in transnational activities. Yet despite this new reality, social work has yet to establish the parameters of a transnational social work practice. In one of the first volumes to address social work practice with this emergent and often marginalized population, practitioners and scholars specializing in transnational issues develop a framework for transnational social work practice. They begin with the historical and environmental context of transnational practice and explore the psychosocial, economic, environmental, and political factors that affect at-risk and vulnerable transnational groups. They then detail practical strategies, supplemented with case examples, for working with transnational populations utilizing this population's existing strengths. They conclude with recommendations for incorporating transnational social work into the curriculum.

James Midgley provides a broad overview of social welfare, outlining key institutions, terminology, historical research, and approaches. He also details reasons for the existence of international social welfare and the challenges that arise from it. The author includes an important section on applied international social welfare that addresses the concerns of practitioners--concerns that have been neglected in much of the literature in the field. An entire section of the book is devoted to issues of social work practice, social developments, the activities of international agencies, and their collaborative efforts. While practical application is an important focus of the book, several chapters deal with key theoretical debates in the field. The author also includes descriptive chapters that provide comprehensive accounts of world social conditions and social welfare institutions.

An international comparison of labour markets, migrant professionals and immigration policies, and their interaction in relation to social work.

Argues that a new set of transnational social welfare arrangements has emerged that challenge traditional social welfare provision based on national citizenship and residence. The idea that social rights are something we are eligible for based on where we live or where we are citizens is out-of-date. In Transnational Social Protection, Peggy Levitt, Erica Dobbs, Ken Chih-Yan Sun, and Ruxandra Paul consider what happens to social welfare when more and more people live, work, study, and retire outside their countries of citizenship where they receive health, education, and elder care. The authors use the concept of resource environment to show how migrants and their families piece together packages of protections from multiple sources in multiple settings and the ways that these vary by place and time. They further show how a new, hybrid transnational social protection regime has emerged in response to the changing environment that complements, supplements, or, in some cases, substitutes for national social welfare systems as we knew them. Examining how national social welfare is affected when migration and mobility become an integral part of everyday life, this book moves our understanding of social protection from the national to the transnational.

Global social work: crossing borders, blurring boundaries is a collection of ideas, debates and reflections on key issues concerning social work as a global profession, such as its theory, its curricula, its practice, its professional identity; its concern with human rights and social activism, and its future directions. Apart from emphasising the complexities of working and talking about social work across borders and cultures, the volume focuses on the curricula of social work programs from as many regions as possible to showcase what is being taught in various cultural, sociopolitical and regional contexts. Exploring the similarities and differences in social work education across many countries of the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Pacific, the book provides a reference point for moving the current social work discourse towards understanding the local and global context in its broader significance.