A broadening horizon: intervention in the field of migration as a path towards internationalization for Italian social work

Abstract

Due to a significant increase in migration flows to Italy over the last four decades, professional social work in Italy has been confronted with the ‘internationalization of social problems’ (Dominelli 2010) over these forty years. This fast and prolific process of immigration has forced institutions to deal with issues for which our society, policies, and service system, have not been properly prepared. This highlights the need to provide updated training to social workers regarding the ‘trans‐cultural approach’, to facilitate understanding of the meanings and the cultural models and the processes of care and assistance. Despite a substantial and well‐established commitment in the area of reception and integration of migrants, the social work remains characterized by a certain ‘localism’ ‐ i.e., anchorage to a certain delimited territorial context. Breaking away from the local sphere as the one and only sphere of intervention, and encouraging an international practice aimed at stimulating cooperation and the dissemination of respect for human rights, seems to be an experience still reserved for those professionals who are not part of the territorial/local services, this being an enterprising and pioneering choice aimed at experimenting with new practices. Moreover, analysis of national literature on the subject shows that little interest is devoted to the phenomenon of internationalization of social work and the study of this field of intervention in Italy. it is in the field of migration that Italian social work is facing the challenge of an intervention that takes it out of the local dimension of services, and the actual person or local communities, and projects it towards methodological, ethical, and political challenges of a global dimension.