“The end of the beginning”: learning from social work with asylum seekers during the Covid-19 pandemic: Α comparative study.

Abstract

This chapter draws upon learning from qualitative research with social workers providing services to asylum seekers in Northern Greece and Southern Italy during the Covid-19 pandemic. The research team aimed to explore and compare challenges, difficulties, and enabling factors in social work practice with asylum seekers at this time, in the two countries. A parallel chapter (X), based on the same study, provides complementary analysis of 30 interviews with asylum seekers, 15 in each country. The research was prompted by a dearth of qualitative research that explores social work practice with asylum seekers (Field et al., 2021), especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. For now, the tide of media, political and legislative attention relating to the pandemic has receded. However, it is suggested that social workers’ adaptations and responses to the intersecting adversities in this phase remain significant within and beyond the context of social work with asylum seekers and refugees.