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Ethnicity is a social construct that can be conceptualised as a social classification delineating certain boundaries between an ethnic group and the dominant group. Members of an ethnic group are a...

Community-based research (CBR) is a relatively new methodology characterised by the co-generation of knowledge. As CBR is integrated into institutional frameworks, it becomes increasingly important to understand what differentiates CBR from other research. To date, there has been no systematic study of CBR values and principles, which tend to be offered as a list of considerations that are taken as given rather than problematised. Similarly, research has not explored the ways in which understandings of CBR's underlying values differ among individual researchers compared to the broader research values of a large university. In this article, we report the findings of a Delphi study which addresses these gaps through a systematic, cross-disciplinary survey of CBR researchers at a large Canadian research university. Our findings indicate diverse and complex understandings of both the potentially political nature of CBR and the perceived values of the respondents' institution.

Summary This article discusses a missing but emergent role of social work with unemployed young people. The authors highlight the transitional and structural factors of youth unemployment. Using a social work lens, the “Youth Employment Network” (YEN) is discussed and the International Labour Organization’s “4Es” (employability, equal opportunity, employment creation, entrepreneurship) framework is elaborated. This article adds a fifth “E” (Ecological connection) and proposes a “5Es” model for social workers to support unemployed young people to overcome transitional and structure barriers for employment. Findings Limited social work programs, studies, or evaluations are targeted for unemployed young people despite historical concern with employment conditions of workers and suggest the instrumental role in research, policy and practice concerning the unemployed young people. Applications Recommendations are provided in terms of how to implement the 5Es in policy, education, training, and direct practice of social work in youth employment.

Although it is widely recognized that the most marginalized people tend to face extra barriers when accessing mainstream services intended to serve everyone, few studies have dealt with the specific barriers and challenges that immigrant and refugee youth from small, marginalized communities encounter when seeking access to services aimed at facilitating their settlement and integration into Canadian society. Our exploratory study of the participation of young African newcomers In youth programs In Metro Vancouver goes some way towards filling this gap. In this paper, we report our key findings and their policy implications. The central finding of this study is that there are many gaps between the needs of young African newcomers and the services available in the wider community. While gaps inhibit successful integration by maintaining a separation of youth from mainstream society, bridges create a continuum of services that offer a stable pathway for youth and promote their integration into mainstream society. Unfortunately, in their attempts to access formal support networks, young African newcomers encounter more gaps than bridges. While newcomers from all countries have particular needs and challenges, the experiences of the young Africans described in this study provide an important reference point for scholars and practitioners who are concerned about the predicaments of newcomer youth, particularly refugees and those from marginalised communities. Resume Bien qu'il soit largement reconnu que les personnes les plus marginallsees ont tendance a faire face a des obstacles supplementaires quand ils cherchent a acceder aux services conventionnels destines a tous, peu d'etudes ont porte sur les obstacles specifiques et les defis auxquels les jeunes immigrants et refugies, de petites communautes marginalisees rencontrent lorsqu'ils cherchent a acceder aux services pouvant faciliter leur etablissement et integration dans Ia societe canadienne. Notre etude exploratoire de la participation des jeunes nouveaux arrivants africains dans les programmes de jeunesse de Metro Vancouver, va dans le sens de combler cette lacune. Dans cet article, nous presentons nos conclusions principales ainsi que leurs implications politiques. La conclusion principale de cette etude est qu'il y a beaucoup d'ecarts entre les besoins des jeunes nouveaux arrivants africains et les services disponibles dans la communaute plus large. Pendant que les ecarts empechent l'integration reussie en malntenant la jeunesse separee de la societe principale, les ponts creent une continulte des services qui offre une voie stable aux jeunes et promeut leur integration dans la societe principale. Malheureusement, dans leurs tentatives d'acces a des reseaux formeis de soutien, les jeunes nouveaux arrivants africains rencontrent plus d'ecarts que de ponts. Alors que les nouveaux arrivants de tous les pays ont des besoins et defis particuIiers, l'experience des jeunes africains decrite dans cette etude fournit un point de reference important pour les chercheurs et praticiens qui sont preoccupes par les conditions precaires des jeunes nouveaux arrivants, particulierement les refugies et ceux des communautes marginalisees. INTRODUCTION Young people make up a significant portion of newcomers to Canada. In 2013, 30% of all immigrants were under the age of 25 (CIC 2014). Such newcomers face a kind of double jeopardy: being new and being young. Until now, most studies of young newcomers have tended to focus on their needs and challenges in the areas of mental health, education, and employment. Furthermore, they also treat immigrant and refugee youth as a group without considering how membership in a particular ethnic community affects settlement trajectories. However, little is known about the challenges faced by young immigrants when accessing social services. Anecdotally, it is understood that those from small and relatively marginalized ethnic communities do not have access to formal support within their own community and have to seek help from mainstream organizations. …

With the questioning of the neutral objective researcher, reflexivity has jumped to the forefront of qualitative research, thus positioning the embodied researcher within the research process. In its power to reveal tacit embodied social structures, reflexivity is touted as the hallmark of methodological validation while also being described as a messy process, particularly in participatory research. In this article, we use illustrative examples from our participatory research exploring the healing practices of racialized minority youth in Canada to highlight the limits of reflexivity and participation. We examine the messy processes in the preliminary phase of our research project and the invaluable insights we took into developing a creative methodology.

The instrumental role of government in the development of social work in China has led to questions about its political function. So far, little has been reported on how the government has “made” social work in China. To fill this gap, we first provide a brief chronological review of major policies and activities of the Chinese government in its making of social work in China. The state's intervention has indeed been massive and crucial although, politically, it may limit the mandate of social work in China. Yet, we argue that the development of the social work profession in China is generating institutional space for the emerging civil society to take a more active role in welfare service delivery. Situated and mediating between the state and the emerging civil society, the social work profession in China will need to constantly negotiate its mandate to meet the needs of both sides.

Nurturing new, competent social work professionals requires multilevel preparation extending from school to the workplace. However, not much has been done to understand this school-to-work transition process in countries where the social work profession is still in an early stage of development. This paper reports the findings of an exploratory qualitative study of 28 new social workers in China, where social work is an emerging profession, on how they entered the field and what challenges they encountered. Their stories indicate that what they learned in school did form a foundation for the establishment of their professional identity in the workplace. However, due to workplace politics and to the lack of recognition of their professional status, they experienced an unsettling induction process. Coupled with the challenges of inadequate financial compensation, the careers of these new social workers may face an early end despite the great future for the profession promised by the government. Implications...

The circular movement of migrants between their homelands and adopted countries has problematized the previous linear understanding of return migration. However, the concept of circular migration tends to apply to migrants whose movement is enabled by their extensive pre-migration connections with their homelands. In this paper, we report findings of a study on a group of new-generation Chinese–Canadian youth working in Hong Kong. Although, like many return migrants, this group of young people had economic reasons for moving to Hong Kong (their parents' homeland), they do not position themselves as return migrants. Instead, they have kept a strong Canadian identity by maintaining unique friendship circles and perceiving Canada as a home to which they will one day return. We highlight in this paper some implications of their experiences for transnational migration studies.

The current discourse of indigenization has been dominated by a normative approach that puts culture and social work values at the centre of discussions of social work's transference ‘from the West to the rest’. Taking a social constructionist perspective, this article argues that we need to critically examine some underlying assumptions of this normative approach, which may have led to misunderstandings of indigenization. The pragmatic approach, which I suggest as an alternative, views indigenization as a process in which various actors with various cultural lenses select the components of Western social work that can be integrated with, or replace, existing local social care practices. The purpose of this integration and replacement is to better serve the needs of the receiving society and its people.

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study of how 28 new social workers in China experienced challenges during the early formulation of their professional social work identity in the workplace. Through social work training at the school, they had been taught that some key social work values were core elements of their social work professional identity. These values have informed their daily practice. However, negative experiences in the emerging social work field in China have hampered not only the advancement of their long term commitment to social work, but also have constantly weakened their fragile professional identity. In light of these findings, the paper proposes that universities, social work organizations and governments should work together to promote a better environment for new social workers and to help them continue in the field. To obtain official support and public recognition towards social work, to delineate the role, responsibilities and authority of this profession in the ...

Individual and social are the two foci of the mission of change that drives the social work profession. This dual-focus provides not only a cultural mechanism by which the profession can negotiate its professional boundaries but the flexibility for the profession to adjust its focus when its social assignment changes. However, the uncritical pursuit of a full-fledged professional status within a neoliberal ideology is upsetting the balance of these two foci and may weaken the long term adaptability of the profession.

This article reports the findings of an online survey and 16 in-depth interviews that show family and friends are neither the predominant nor most useful social resource for young jobseekers from immigrant families. Instead, they tend to use more formal job-search strategies. In our sample, the employment outcomes of ethno-racial minority immigrant youth were less desirable than those of their counterparts from the dominant group. Based on the study's findings, this article argues that being an ethno-racial minority and being from an immigrant family become a double jeopardy for this group of new generation youth when they enter the competitive job market.

The concept of multiculturalism has become a fixture in Canadian society as part of a nation-building mechanism. In many ways, this suggests a perception that public policies promoting multiculturalism are working. However, this perception is based on assumptions that there is a coherent and shared definition and understanding of the implementation of multiculturalism policies. This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study that examined how multiculturalism policies are actualized at the grassroots level through community organizations. This study involved key informant interviews and focus groups of government staff responsible for the delivery of multiculturalism at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels, as well as discussions with service users and service providers of multiculturalism. Findings of this study show that, first, there is a difference in the understanding of the meaning of the policies among these research participants. Second, there has been a subtle shift of governmental interpretation of multiculturalism policies to an antiracist perspective. Third, although both federal and provincial governments have positioned community organizations as key partners in actualizing multiculturalism policies at the grassroots level, their relationship has been strained, i.e., in order to attain their goals for multiculturalism, community organizations have had to adapt to changing rules and to learn how to maneuver through the funding process. Some policy implications are suggested at the end of the paper. Resume: Le concept du multiculturalisme fait partie integrante du mecanisme de la reconstruction d’une nation au sein de la societe canadienne. De plusieurs facons, cela suggere qu’une perception existe selon laquelle les politiques des gouvernements ayant pour but de promouvoir le multiculturalisme fonctionnent bien. Toutefois, cette perception se base sur la premisse qu’il existe une definition et une comprehension coherentes et partagees de la mise en œuvre de politiques qui gouvernent le multiculturalisme. Cet article presente le compte rendu des donnees recueillies lors d’une etude exploratoire de la maniere dont les politiques gouvernant le multiculturalisme sont actualisees au niveau fondamental par l’intermediaire d’organismes communautaires. Cette etude presente aussi des entretiens tenus avec certaines personnes-ressources cles ainsi qu’avec un groupe de discussion forme de membres du personnel de la fonction publique charges de la mise en œuvre du multiculturalisme aux niveaux federal, provincial et municipal, aussi bien qu’avec les utilisateurs et fournisseurs de services relies au multiculturalisme. Les donnees recueillies dans cette etude demontrent que, premierement, il existe differents niveaux de comprehension de la signification des politiques parmi les participants de ces recherches. Deuxiemement, il existe dans l’interpretation faite par les gouvernements des politiques du multiculturalisme, un transfert subtil vers une perspective antiraciste. Troisiemement, bien que les gouvernements aient vise certains organismes communautaires comme partenaires-cle dans l’actualisation des politiques au niveau fondamental, la relation entre les gouvernements et ces organismes demeure un peu etrange. De plus, a la fin de cet article, nous suggerons certaines implications des politiques gouvernant le multiculturalisme.

With changes in the source of origin of immigrants, a new cohort of new generation youth from vis- ible minority immigrant families has begun to be established and become the key replacement of the aging Canadian labour force. Based on existing research, being young, being visible, and com- ing from an immigrant family are possible disadvantages in the labour market. Research on this new generation youth, however, is limited. This paper reports findings of two qualitative studies examining how this new generation youth, with or without a university degree, found work and what kinds of resources they used in their job search. The economic boom in British Columbia has offered easy access to the labour market. Coming from an immigrant family, however, visible minor- ity youth benefit very little from their social ties and those of their family.

Social work education in China has expanded rapidly since it was reintroduced in 1988. This has led to a growing body of English language literature on the development of social work education in China. However, thus far, this literature lacks an empirical foundation and little research on students' perspectives has been done. To fill this gap, this paper reports on a qualitative study of a group of graduating social work students (n = 32) from four social work programmes in Jinan, the provincial capital of the Shandong Province. Three major findings are reported. Firstly, the students liken their social work learning experience to a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs. Secondly, the cultural compatibility of western social work in China has not yet been conclusively established, while an ‘indigenized’ social work needs to be compatible with Chinese family values, referred to as ‘familism’ in direct Chinese to English translation, and with the dominant socialist political ideology. Thirdly, the fu...

EnglishIn their efforts to promote the Global Standards for the Education and Training of the Social Work Profession, the authors discovered the withering of the moral and political bases of social work practice in the West. The revitalization of the roots of social work is important to the promotion of social justice.FrenchDans leurs efforts pour promouvoir les Standards Mondiaux pour l’Enseignement et la Formation aux Professions Sociales, les auteurs découvrent le déclin des bases morales et politiques de la pratique du travail social en occident. La revitalisation des racines du travail social est importante pour la promotion de la justice sociale.SpanishEn su esfuerzo para promover los Estándares Globales para la Educación y el Entrenamiento en la Profesión del Trabajo Social, los autores descubrieron el marchitar de las bases políticas y morales de la práctica del trabajo social en occidente. La revitalización de las raíces del trabajo social es importante para la promoción de la justicia social.

In the mid‐1980s, social work, which had been practised in China in the years before 1949, was reintroduced as a newly imported social discipline. Like many other imported social ideas and practices, such as the free market, it was not well‐adapted to the socialist ideology of China and, therefore, was required to exhibit ‘Chinese characteristics’, (a term proposed by Deng Xiaoping to justify the economic reform in the early 1980s). In this paper, we first examine the discourse relating to Chinese characteristics in selected social work literature published in China. Then we report the findings of a qualitative study of 32 social work graduating students to gain an empirical understanding of these students' perception of the Chinese characteristics of social work. The implications of social work development in China and international social work are also discussed. 在20世纪80年代中期，社会工作在中国再度恢复了在社会科学中的学科地位。正如许多其它外来的思想和实践方法，如自由市场等概念一样，都没有被调整以适应“中国特色”的社会主义意识形态（(此概念在20世纪80年代初由邓小平提出)。在本文中，作者首先根据一些在中国出版的中文文献，研究有关中国社...

EnglishFor youths to seek employment, social capital is as important as human capital. This article conceptually examines how guanxi, a form of social capital in Chinese culture, may be instrumental in helping young people access jobs. Suggestions of alternative services for helping unemployed youths in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong are offered.FrenchPour les jeunes à la recherche d’un emploi, le capital social est aussi important que le capital humain. Cet article examine comment la notion de guanxi, une forme de capital social dans la culture chinoise, peut aider concrètement les jeunes gens à avoir accès à un emploi. Il propose aussi des suggestions de services alternatifs pour aider les jeunes chômeurs en Chine, à Taïwan et à Hong-Kong.SpanishPara la juventud que busca empleo, el capital social es tan importante como el capital humano. Este artículo examina conceptualmente cómo guanxi, forma de capital social en la cultura China, puede ayudar instrumentalmente a la gente joven para acceder al trabajo. Se ofrecen recomendaciones de servicios alternativos para ayudar a la juventud desempleada en Mainland China, Taiwán y Hong Kong.

With ethno-culturally diverse immigrants arriving in constantly increasing numbers, connecting newcomers to residents in the local community is a growing challenge. Settlement houses have traditionally been the “machinery of connection” that bridges such diverse groups. This article reports the results of a study on settlement houses in an urban center located in western Canada. The results show that by embracing bridging as their mission, promoting volunteering, and providing holistic services to meet needs, settlement houses have successfully helped newcomers build cross-group social ties and integrate into the community.

The magnitude and speed of social work's development in mainland China is unprecedented in human history. This inevitably gives rise to multiple perspectives on its nature and future development, particularly as part of the international social work discourse. Some of these perspectives are based on unexamined assumptions about China. In the present paper, we examine three of these assumptions, namely the homogeneity of Chinese culture, the global–indigenous dichotomy, and social work as an academic discipline and practice profession. We argue that in order to understand the development of social work in China we need to locate our discussion at the discursive intersection among different competitive articulations in both local and international arenas. Based on this critical examination, a brief discussion on the future development of social work in mainland China is offered.

English Despite the fast development of social work education, scholars in China are eager to import and adapt western social work knowledge which is portrayed as a monolithic entity. Using a case study of American social work literature, we question the existence of a monolithic system of western knowledge. French En dé pit du développement rapide de la formation en travail social, les étudiants chinois sont pressé s d’importer et d’adapter le savoir occidental en matière de travail social, qui est dé crit comme une entité monolithique. Àpartir d’une é tude de cas s’appuyant sur de la documentation amé ricaine en travail social, on s’interroge sur l’existence d’un système monolithique de savoir occidental. Spanish A pesar del acelerado desarrollo de la enseñ anza del trabajo social, los estudiantes en China tienen muchas ganas de importar y adaptar el conocimiento del trabajo social occidental, el cual es descrito como una entidad monolítica. Utilizando un estudio de caso de la literatura del trabajo social americano, nosotros cuestionamos la existencia de un sistema monolótico del conocimiento occidental.

Social work education in China has now been reinstated for almost two decades, after it was discontinued in the early 1950s. Due to various reasons, so far, there has not been a standardised social work curriculum in China. This article reports on the first empirical study finished in late 2001. Employing a Delphi technique, 47 social work scholars were invited to provide their opinions on the nature of social work in China, the requirements of social work graduates and the social work curriculum at the undergraduate level. The findings indicate that despite the influence of the Western model induced mainly by social work scholars in Hong Kong, social work education in China is moving towards an indigenised model within its unique social–political–cultural context. Respondents tended to adopt an expert model and the ‘helping people to help themselves’ principle. Social work is understood as being instrumental to enhancing the rapid economic changes by employing scientific knowledge and skills to resolve s...

This article briefly introduces the history and major policies of a mas- sive community construction project launched by the People's Republic of China in the mid-1980s. Based on a literature review and field observations, the authors highlight four characteristics of this project: muddling through chaos, top-down control, regulated partici- pation, and community as functional establishment. It is argued that the goal of the project is not to recreate, in China, a Western model of civil society, but to restructure the existing urban administrative structure so that it can adapt to new social demands. By transforming the grassroots neighbourhood organization - the residents' commit- tee - into a welfare provider, this project is expected to ease the state's welfare burden while maintaining its political control.

The cultural competence approach has grown significantly in the North American human service professions. The reliance of social workers on cultural awareness to block the influence of their own culture in the helping process entails three problematic and conflicting assumptions, namely, the notion of human being as cultural artifact, the use of self as a technique for transcending cultural bias, and the subject-object dichotomy as a defining structure of the worker-client relationship. The authors contend that there are conceptual incoherencies within the cultural competence model's standard notion of self-awareness. The conceptualization of a dialogic self may unsettle the hierarchical worker-client relationship and de-essentialize the concept of culture. Cross-cultural social work thus becomes a site where client and worker negotiate and communicate to cocreate new meanings and relationships.

This paper recaptures the history of the settlement house and its relationship with social group work. Through the examination of a community center in Hong Kong, the author argues that the “social” of social group work lies largely in the organizational domain within which group work is practiced. Group work practice inherited from the mission of the settlement house can connect individual change and growth with improvement in the social context. Therefore, to reclaim the roots of social group work, we may need to revisit the commitment of the profession to community-based center service.

Indigenization is a key issue in the development of professional social work in China. Chinese social work scholars have adopted the century-old conceptual formulation of ‘Chinese corpus, western application’ to balance the need for western knowledge and the need for intellectual autonomy. This article explores major current debates on ideology, teleology, epistemology and technology within the social work profession in the West and their implications for social work development in China.

Finding a job has become a critical challenge to many youth. Immigrant youth, who have been a key part of the global migrants, are particularly vulnerable when entering the job market of the host country due to various structural barriers. However, in both public policy discourse and research, their labour market experience tends to be overlooked. In this paper, we report the employment experience of recently arrived immigrant youth based on an analysis of the LSIC and findings of in-depth interviews of 82 immigrant youth in four cities in Canada. Our results reveal that recently arrived immigrant youth tend to work in lower-skilled employment, experience significant delays in finding employment, have difficulties with foreign credential recognition, and have fewer means to access to job markets.

Discussion of cultural tension in the social work literature is piecemeal. As part of a grounded theory study, this article reports some major findings on cultural tensions experienced by 30 frontline social workers. Cultural tensions caused by cultural similarities and differences among social workers, clients, organizations, and society are multifaceted. Social workers, however, are always at the center of the tensions. Findings indicate that the social work profession may need to consider the neutrality claim of the profession, the different experience of ethnic minority social workers, and the need of critical reflexivity for reflective practitioners. Implications for social work practice, social work education for ethnic minority social workers, and social work research are discussed.