Ajwang Warria
University of the Witwatersrand
Dr. Warria currently works as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Work, at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). She is passionate about child care, protection and rights issues and has worked with refugee children, trafficked children and with children living and working on the streets. She has been instrumental in the development of several child protection and anti-trafficking policy documents in South Africa.
Objective: To identify context specific challenges that social workers encounter when providing social services to migrant children Introduction: Children, of late, represent majority of migrants and... [ view full abstract ]
Objective: To identify context specific challenges that social workers encounter when providing social services to migrant children
Introduction: Children, of late, represent majority of migrants and due to their vulnerability, they require special care and protection. South Africa has a progressive and well developed legal and policy framework for securing rights of migrant children. However, critical gaps exist in the implementation of legal policy and social work practice frameworks. Furthermore, the challenges that social workers experience when working towards the needs to these emigrant children has barely been studied, yet it is a crucial aspect of duty to care and in the delivery of services.
Methods: In this study, a qualitative research approach will be applied to get rich details from study participants. Purposive sampling will be used when selecting the 10 qualified and registered social workers who will be interviewed for the study. In-depth interviews will be conducted by the researcher and audio-recorded. The researcher will apply for ethics clearance from the University of Witwatersrand before commencing the study. Thematic analysis will be used to analyze the data in conjunction with previous literature reviewed.
Results: Anticipated possible challenges might include limited resources, complexity of migrant children’s needs, difficult permanency goal formulation, lack of specialized training and lack of inter-sectoral collaboration.
Conclusion: Indeed, social workers can offer various different threads of (re-)connection to migrant children. However, social workers voices, actions and efforts should not be silenced and oppressed but greater support and training should be provided as part of strengthening protection systems for migrant children.
