Child Protection Social Workers and Asylum-Seeking Families in Ireland

Coming from a previously colonised country, where sharing space with White people was not the norm until Independence in 1980, I had mixed feelings about the experience. In the early days of living in Cork, I was as much a novelty to the people I met as they were to me. On the streets, most people stopped to stare at me. Some curiously asked me where I was from, a question which I continued to be asked for the next thirty years – even up to the present time. In 2005, I obtained my Irish citizenship and now consider myself Black Irish. In recent times, when asked where I am from, I respond by saying that I am from Dundalk, the town in which I live. This response always prompts a further question ‘But where are you really from?’ at which point I am reminded of my real ethnic identity. When I respond by saying that I am originally from Zimbabwe, that answer seems to satisfactorily address the question. From my perspective, in the context of migration, this raises the question of identity in terms of how migrants might self-identify versus the host society’s perception of them. Belonging, therefore, is not simply a matter of how one self-identifies; it is also a matter of how the host country categorises one.

On returning to Ireland then, I found a more diverse country. There had been a sharp increase in the numbers of people coming to live in Ireland as refugees and migrants, and there were African shops, Chinese shops, Indian shops and diverse churches to cater for a more diverse population. In my new role as a child and family social worker, the presence of families from other cultures was evident, as were the challenges experienced by them and by the social workers who were engaged in providing a service to these families.

In part, this book arose from the unease I felt in those years in practice when, for example, immigration officers or the Gardaí (the national police force in Ireland) arrived at the office with an unaccompanied minor, often of African origin. My colleagues frequently asked what age I thought the young person or child was, but I was usually as unsure as they were. However, there appeared to be the assumption that since I was Black African, I might be able to tell the age of young Black African refugees. Over time I observed that, in addition to those issues related to age assessment, there were frequently other difficulties in the working relationship between my social work colleagues and the asylum-seeking service users. There were, for instance, misunderstandings in relation to cultural differences in child-rearing practices. This awareness propelled me to explore further the way in which the migration process intersected with the working relationship of social workers and the asylum-seeking families with whom they worked.

This book, therefore, arises from an amalgam of my personal, educational and professional experiences. When I came to Ireland in 1988, services were limited in their response to the rise in the numbers of people coming to Ireland as migrants and refugees who were seeking asylum. Among other things, the presence of these newcomers demanded diverse approaches to child welfare and protection issues. During the later period of my ten years working as a social work practitioner, I embarked on a PhD at Queen’s University Belfast. Subsequently, in 2008, I took up a position as a lecturer in social care. My doctoral research explored the experiences of asylum-seeking families living in Direct Provision and the Irish social workers, with whom they engaged, in relation to child protection issues.

Twenty participants took part in the study – ten social workers and ten asylum-seeking parents/guardians. I selected the participants by using the purposive sampling approach, and I used the Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM) to generate data. BNIM is a general qualitative narrative approach founded on the premise that individuals construct the meaning of their lives through storytelling, which is grounded in social interaction. The key advantage of BNIM interviewing techniques is that the method acknowledges power relationships. It therefore sets out a robust framework within which the researcher invites the participants to direct the interview by narrating their stories in ways that they want and taking as much time as they want. It is the participant who ends the interview and not the researcher. I used the thematic analysis approach to draw out themes from the storied data.

This book, therefore, represents part of the work which I undertook in my PhD thesis. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it brings together the voice of professionals – social workers – and those of the persons whom they serve – asylum seekers living in Direct Provision, in a context where the voice of professionals has historically been foregrounded at the expense of that of the clients whom they serve. The structure of the book is designed to enable a broader understanding of how global migration trends influence the local context, and vice-versa, in relation to child-rearing and child protection practices.

The evidence from the research which I carried out highlighted the fact that child protection issues for asylum-seeking families had specific challenges. This was evident from the perspectives of both the families and the Irish state. Despite the regulations and policies developed on childcare and protection in modern Ireland, special circumstances – such as families in the process of seeking asylum – should be afforded further consideration because of significant cultural differences, language barriers and the potential for discrimination. Based on the historical experiences of African people, this aspect of discrimination is vitally important. The research not only highlighted the difficulties experienced by families but also challenged the existing academic knowledge in the field of study. This book focuses on the importance of shared values, shared knowledge and shared futures. It is a forward-looking book, giving it credence in Irish and international contexts by acknowledging and respecting African parenting styles while offering explanations on practices which may have the potential to raise queries by practitioners in child protection agencies.

The study on which this book is based offers a platform for reflection on some of the issues which were shown in the narratives of asylum-seeking families and their social workers. The book presents a complex intersectionality of issues which emerged from the study upon which this book is based. As the title of this book indicates, the issues which were examined related to race/racism culture, cultural misunderstandings, power relations and mutual mistrust between social workers and the asylum seekers who were mostly of African Descent. By presenting such narratives, through the voices of social workers and asylum-seeking families, the reader is invited to critically reflect and draw lessons from their accounts. While this book does not claim to be exhaustive in this vastly complex topic area, it does, however, go some way towards engaging the reader with pertinent practice issues which arise in the context of child protection social work with asylum-seeking families, thus adding to our knowledge of state protection and the experiences of migrant populations.