About the Lecture
As a result of global instabilities, the so-called “refugee crisis” and rising inter-cultural tensions in Western societies, gendered cultural practices have been relocated at the heart of contemporary debates on migration, multiculturalism and social cohesion. In this context, European states have made strong commitments to protect women and girls from female genital mutilation (FGM). These commitments have been accompanied by a critique against the social work profession’s ability to navigate diversity and respond to transnational risks. In the face of growing diversity, cultural competence remains an elusive concept in social work practice.
This talk articulates the centrality of attending to the interplay of cultural and structural considerations in cross-cultural social work and multi-agency safeguarding. Crucially, the compounding effects of cultural complexities, immigration controls and structural exclusions shape social work with displaced migrant communities. Refugee women’s experiences exemplify how the wider anti-immigration climate has materialised to perpetuate hypervigilance, harm and intersectional erasures in statutory service responses to FGM and other cultural forms of violence. This talk approaches cultural competence through a social justice lens, teasing out the possibilities of challenging Eurocentrism in social work through participatory strategies, in order to return the “social” to the heart of social work practice.
Organisation
Prof. Dr. Karolina Barglowski
Institute for Social Research and Interventions,
University of Luxembourg
Contact
karolina.barglowski[@]uni.lu
isi[@]uni.lu