Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Social workers are committed to social justice, yet social justice continues to remain an elusive term in social work practice with migrant populations. Indeed, recent migration trends have raised critical questions underscoring existing knowledge of the experiences of forced migrants. Among others, social workers report feeling underprepared to work with displaced populations, especially rejected asylum seekers whose experiences remain largely hidden. This population has shown a consistent rise in recent years, but their voices are seldom reflected in social work research or social policies that directly impact their lives. Among these policies is repatriation, or the right to return to one’s country of origin. Repatriation is the preferred policy solution to migration crisis for the United Nations despite a significant body of research which substantiates that repatriation is not a durable solution. Considering that this discrepancy between the preference for repatriation and the experiences of rejected asylum seekers is a social justice issue my study was grounded in postcolonial theories and employed Critical Discourses Analysis to explore the involuntary repatriation of rejected asylum seekers from Kosovo. Findings from semi-structured interviews with rejected asylum seekers suggest that this population often lacks access to basic social services and desires re-emigration rather than repatriation. Responding to calls for models of practice which guide the work of helping professionals with forced returnees, this discussion builds upon study findings centering dominant discourses to develop a framework across micro, mezzo, and macro levels of practice.