Reflections on Social Work with Immigrant and Refugee Communities

According to most recent estimates by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are approximately 65.6 million people around the world who have been forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations—marking a record high in the world’s forcibly displaced population. Of those, 22.5 million are categorized as refugees, 40.3 million are internally displaced, and 2.8 million are seeking asylum. Over half (51 percent) are children. More than half of all refugees under the UNHCR’s mandate are from just three countries: Syria (5.5 million), Afghanistan (2.5 million), and South Sudan (1.4 million), while 5.3 million Palestinian refugees are registered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2017).

My interest and experience in working with refugees, asylum-seekers, and other immigrant populations directly led me to the field of…