Ways Of Engaging With The Newly Arrived Refugees - Essay Example

Ways of Engaging With the Newly Arrived Refugees in My Local Area Introduction In any given local government municipality, responsibility lies in serving the population within that locality. This includes serving both the advantaged and the disadvantaged in the society. To achieve this goal, the local government municipality needs human capital in the form of social workers to provide a range of welfare and support services to people living within that municipality. Providing welfare and support services to the people who need those services require good leadership from the personnel involved. This is important in terms of ensuring that there is equitable distribution of welfare and support services across the community. For instance, a community development officer working in a low socio-economic area needs to be impartial when distributing resources and ensuring these resources reach the right people. This means that the community development officer has to engage other personnel in teamwork where consensus is built on how best resources can be distributed in the low socio-economic areas. On the other hand, while social workers are used to working with the local community, there are possibility for the arrival of refugees from another geographical locality. This means that social workers have to come with new methods of integrating the refugees into the local community’s welfare and support services (Hussein, Manthorpe & Stevens, 2011). The dynamics of working with newly arrived refugees In my local area, working with a new group of people is not easy and require a person with experience and knowledge regarding different cultures to understand the dynamics that may emanate from new people arriving into a community. Different communities have different norms and traditions that define their day-to-day activities. However, new people in a community need time to understand these norms and traditions rather than the imposition of the same. As a social worker, it is important to understand that these refugees come from a different social background and what may seem right to the social worker, can be looked at on the contrary by a refugee. As such, it is important for social workers engaging newly arrived refugees to understand their culture first. This involves for instance, developing a rapport with the refugees and making them feel secure in order to enable the social workers to obtain an idea of their worldviews (Hussein, Manthorpe & Stevens, 2011). This provides the social workers a clue of the kind of support system that can be provided to the new refugees. Refugees often feel insecure the first time they arrive in their host territory and as such, it is important for the social workers to make these refugees feel safe in their host community. As a practice related to managing refugees, it is a common occurrence to find refugees isolated from the locals for a number of reasons such as security and the safety of both the refugees and the locals. However, this isolation is a procedure that most often take a short while before these refugees become part of the community. However, integrating the refugees into a new environment is not easy and needs social workers to have a better understanding of what the refugees need in their new environment to survive on an equal basis compared, to the locals (Sirriyeh, 2013). How to engage the newly arrived refugees In my local area, many factors are often considered when engaging the newly arrived refugees from another geographical location. People move from one geographical area to another locality for different reasons. It could be as a result of a natural disaster or conflict in their region that has forced them to look for safety elsewhere. As such, it is important for the social workers to first assess the refugees psychologically by engaging them in a counselling process. This help to determine the extent of trauma that these refugees might have gone through prior to relocation from their original area or location. In addition, counselling process will help the social workers to understand the problems affecting the refugees and come up with effective measures to help the refugees. These effective measures are important in terms of ensuring that the support systems provided to the refugees cater for their needs while staying in the host community (Barrington & Finch, 2013). While counselling process is a significant step when engaging the newly arrived refugees to understand various issues affecting them, integrating these refugees to the local community is also important. This will ensure that they feel as part of the community and even learn the norms and traditions of the host community. In most instances, people or communities are normally displaced because of conflicts. As a result of the trauma experienced by such people, most refugees are normally reluctant to return to their original homes. As such, integrating these refugees in the local community is important in terms of helping them get used to their new home. In essence, advocating for social inclusion is important in terms of helping the refugees to feel safe and secure in their new homes (Barrington & Finch, 2013). The other way that social workers can engage newly arrived refugees is through carrying out a needs assessment. This is important in terms of understanding the needs of the refugees in order to establish better support systems for the refugees. A needs assessment will enable the social worker to prioritize needs proposed by the newly arrived refugees. Such needs could be healthcare, education, housing and security for the newly arrived refugees. While engaging the refugees in a needs assessment process, social workers can use a forum such a focus group to lay out a plan with the refugees regarding the needs that they want their host community to undertaking. Like the locals, the newly arrived refugees may have needs such as accessing healthcare institutions or looking for good schools for their children. In this sense, a social worker can engage the newly arrived refugees by referring them to the institutions where they can get assistance. In addition, social workers can help refugees struggling to find better shelter in the host community (Cox, 2011). On another note, social workers in their engagement with the newly arrived refugees, as a practice in my local area involves a focus on rights- based approach. This helps in assessing the refugees needs thoroughly and coming up with effective ways of assisting the refugees. As a common occurrence in any societal setting, there are groups of people who are normally less visible like older refugees or people with disabilities. As such, social workers can engage these groups by ensuring their team of workers have the skills and capacity to establish an efficient multiagency partnership to enhance their engagement with the newly arrived refugees (O’Higgins, 2012). In a rights-based approach, social workers can engage the refugees by giving their guest equal rights accorded to the locals. This involves treating the refugees with respect and dignity while providing the necessary services. As such, the team of social workers in this context, need to develop a plan that recognizes the conventions related to treating refugees in a dignified manner. In developing a plan to engage the refugees, the aforementioned strategies are important in terms of ensuring that the rights of the refugees are not violated. For instance, counseling plays an important role in terms of understanding the problems that the refugees face and the eventual intervention process to ensure their psychological or psychosocial needs are catered for by the authorities responsible for their stay in the host community. Further, carrying out a needs assessment by the social workers is also important in the sense that, the important needs of the refugees are identified and provided. Integrating the refugees in the community through processes such as social inclusion is a key strategy when engaging refugees in a plan that focuses on a rights based approach by social workers (Martinez-Brawley & Zorita, 2011). As a community development officer in my local area, working with newly arrived refugees is a hard task that requires team work on the approach to utilize. Teamwork ensures that all personnel agree to the approach adopted for engagement with the refugees in order to realise success with the identified support systems for the newly arrived refugees. In addition, as the leader of the team, it is also important to engage other local organisations that are willing to support the effort of engaging the refugees in a successful and humane manner. This includes organisations that can provide the refugees with health needs, spiritual needs and housing or shelter, which is geared towards the intended rights, based approach when dealing with the newly arrived refugees. A plan where other organisations are involved should also look at the needs of the refugee’s children due to their vulnerability under these circumstances (Toyin & Aymer, 2003). Conclusion As a social worker, coming up with a plan to engage the newly arrived refugee is not an easy task and requires a collaborative effort from the responsible authorities. However, on the part of the social worker, there is a need to take a rights based approach when dealing with the newly arrived refugees. This ensures that the social worker is able to recognize the rights of the refugee as a human being. As such, a plan developed by a social worker should ensure that the refugee’s dignity and respect is intact. This is possible by ensuring that the newly arrived refugees are provided with the basic needs while in the host community. References Barrington, A & Finch, J. (2013). Working with refugee survivors of torture and trauma: An opportunity for vicarious post-traumatic growth. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 26(1), pp. 89-105. Cox, P. (2011).Issues in Safeguarding Refugee and Asylum-seeking Children and Young People: Research and Practice. Child Abuse Review, Vol. 20(5), pp. 341-360. Hussein, S., Manthorpe, J., & Stevens, M. (2011). Exploring the potential of refugees and asylum seekers for social care work in England: a qualitative study. Health & Social Care in the Community, Vol. 19(5), pp. 468-475. Martinez-Brawley, E & Zorita, Paz. (2011). Immigration and Social Work: Contrasting Practice and Education. Social Work Education, Vol. 30(1), pp. 17-28. OHiggins, A. (2012).Vulnerability and agency: Beyond an irreconcilable dichotomy for social service providers working with young refugees in the UK. New Directions for Child & Adolescent Development, Vol. 20 (136), pp. 79-91. Sirriyeh, A. (2013). Hosting strangers: hospitality and family practices in fostering unaccompanied refugee young people. Child & Family Social Work, Vol. 18(1), pp. 5-14. Toyin, O., & Aymer, C. (2003).Social work with African refugee children and their families. Child & Family Social Work, Vol. 8(3), p. 213. Read More