Working with Families from Diverse Backgrounds - Research Paper Example

? Skills and Perspectives Needed for Working With Families From Diverse Backgrounds I.D. Number: Term and Year Instructor’s Name Skills and Perspectives Needed for Working With Families From Diverse Backgrounds Abstract In the course of conducting professional tasks and duties in the realm of intercultural family counseling and management, social workers are required to practically learn and develop satisfactory cultural competence. Positive reception among the masses is a prerequisite to the winning workability of a social worker. Anti-oppressive practices must, therefore, be taken up and proper alterations in the service-user relationships must be carried out from apposite and compassionate viewpoints. The current research paper is aimed at identifying the skills needed for working with families from diverse backgrounds. Moreover, perspectives are critical in understanding intercultural problems in the modern industrial world. In the paper, perspectives helpful to comprehend family related issues have also been discussed in detail. Introduction In this paper, the main skills and perspectives needed for working with families from diverse backgrounds will be reviewed and analyzed. The principal focus of the research is on the situation in the western countries such as USA and other developed countries such as Australia where issues of intercultural relationships, migration, assimilation, etc. have drawn considerable public attention and debate at various levels of family and consumer studies. In writing this paper, academic literature including scholarly articles and practitioner’s resources have been used from reputable journals and university databases and libraries. The paper is divided into sections dedicated to introduction, background research, problem, thesis statement, objectives, discussion, and conclusion. Background Family is the unit of society and nation that provides the most critical needs such as physical security and emotional support to its members. Family system brings coherence among individuals, begets mutual trust, legitimizes sex and synthesizes the civilization (Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel, 2009). Given the importance of family in any civilized society, immigrants have to be assimilated keeping in mind the need of fostering social coherence. Particularly in the developed countries where social constructs are highly complex and mechanistic industrialization booms, advent of immigrants is a major trend. For example, USA receives thousands of immigrants from different parts of the world every year. The institution of family becomes critical in such circumstances, where immigrants are being received either in groups, in families, or simply as isolated individuals and/or asylum seekers (Gold & Nawyn, 2013). Furthermore, the issue of social justice for the relatively more marginalized populations also remains a significant question. For example, aboriginal population in Australia needs more social care and empathetic treatment because of their poor economic conditions. In America, the American Indians and African Americans also have similar problems. Problem In working with the families with diverse backgrounds, there are different issues in different countries. For example, in the countries such as Australia and New Zealand where immigration is still rather limited, issues of the families from aboriginal cultures must be addressed. These issues are absent in UK, yet the problem of assimilating the immigrant population in the country is very serious. And in the countries such as USA, ethnically and culturally varied families are highly common. Historically, USA has faced numerous hurdles in assimilating the various minority ethnic groups, immigrants, American Indians, different religious groups, etc. The practical aspects of the overall problem relate to three important issues: (1) handling the difficulties faced by children; (2) handling the difficulties faced by female family members; and (3) creating a holistic coverage of intercultural issues with implications for necessary skills to handle them. Thesis Statement A comprehensive understanding of intercultural issues must be built up among the social workers with a special focus on the problems faced by women and children in families coming from diverse backgrounds. Subsequently, necessary social work skills and perspectives must be identified and practiced, which would help in intercultural assimilation through cultural competence. Objectives 1) To study the problems faced by female members of a client family 2) To study the problems faced by minor members of a client family 3) To develop understanding of intercultural issues and research on useful perspectives 4) To develop implications for necessary skills for working with families from diverse backgrounds Discussion In handling a family, a caregiver or a social worker must be aware of the fact that most families are dependent on gender relations. Generally, every family consists of women and children. So while handling a family, the social worker must be well versed in what kind of problems a woman or girl child might be facing in the family. On the other hand, the male members are usually the independent earning members who are both responsible and powerful in the family framework. Unfortunately, some male members often turn abusive and create serious problems for their female counterparts. Issues such as marital rape, spousal abuse, and incest are the major threats toward women inside the family. And in the case of families from non-English speaking backgrounds, the crisis becomes more serious due to pre-existing family specific traditions and language problems (Samovar et al., 2009; Aldunate, 1999). Next, there is the issue of child abuse. Child abuse may also take place outside the family. And in the case of children who do not belong to the majority community in an area, there might be discrimination and persecution. For example, racial prejudice has led to segregation in certain regions of urban Australia where migrant families are being targeted by the racist elements in the society (Aldunate, 1999). In USA, there have been a number of different ethnic groups in different parts of the country. And significant minority communities such as those of American Indians and African Americans often complain about discrimination and racial injustice. Further in this context, the children suffer most. Even today, children from the African American communities are socially neglected and more exposed to risks of trafficking, substance abuse, physical abuse, etc. (International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, 2004; Carballeira, 1996). In the intercultural context, the main perspectives of handling family issues must cover the quest of delivering ample security to women and children along with provisions for their well being and rights (Lee, 2003). When uniform codes and customs are followed according to the country’s law and order, issues faced by women and children inside or outside a family can be resolved better because of less legal ambiguity. But rights of the victims of abuse or isolation of the members of an intercultural family are highly debated. In the case of the communities such as Muslims and certain aboriginal populations, even a uniform code of legal conduct might not be applied due to religious resistance or mutual distrust. So a child’s right to his/her culture may be found to be standing in the way of his/her right to safety (Frey, 2006). Consequently, a social worker who aims to work with the families coming from different and highly dissimilar cultural backgrounds must not depend on rules and regulations all the time. And development of specialist skills becomes more important at this point. Instead of seeking police help, the social worker must be skilled enough to develop intra-family consensus before it is too late. In this way, clashes of cultures can be prevented and the guardians in the family can be guided toward the right direction. Also, the social worker must be sympathetic towards the male members of the client family and see if they are facing any sort of discrimination at work, education, etc. and becoming frustrated so much so that they begin to torture their own family members, particularly the women and children (Sue, 2006; Carballeira, 1996). When social care providers adopt a more holistic and proactive approach, success rates of resolving intercultural family issues soar high. The social worker has to be trained in “bridging the gap” so that they can develop the necessary skills to comprehend the unique features of each and every client family with special reference to those who belong to immigrant and/or minority communities (Carballeira, 1996, p. 2). Identifying and Developing the Perspectives In developing a comprehensive understanding to address the needs of families from diverse backgrounds, experts such as Cross, Bazron, Dennis, and Isaacs (1989) and Liard (2008) have suggested that first of all, the social worker or agency must build up sincere respect for developing and maintaining a culturally diverse society by drawing up people from different ethnic, religious, racial, and economic backgrounds. Essentially, this involves accepting the inflow of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and foreign workers and their families. Cultural self-assessment (Cross et al., 1989), self-awareness (Carballeira, 1996), and anti-oppressive attitude (Liard, 2008) are the most important perspectives in respect of which a social worker must have to develop a holistic view. While working with families from diverse backgrounds, it might be disastrous to always call for law enforcement authorities in handling cases of domestic quarrels and depression. Although police must be informed when a social worker finds out cases of incest, domestic violence and rape, etc., the situation might not be so serious in other cases. Before a quarrel or cultural problem may aggravate to domestic violence, the social worker must adopt a cross-cultural and solution-focused approach with an aim to solve the family specific issue before it becomes a more serious case (Lee, 2003). Cultural studies can help in this. For example, knowledge of Islamic perspectives can help a social worker to solve the problems within a migrant Muslim family through counseling and negotiation in a respectful and empathetic environment. Implications on Skills Needed Mederos and Woldeguiorguis (2003) suggest that protecting women and children involves building confidence and facilitating dialog with the child’s family members and try out a solution through psychological counseling with the help of sex education and raising awareness about socio-sexual behavior and child rearing techniques. So rushing to the law enforcement authorities may not always bring the necessary relief. Nevertheless, in the case initial attempts of raising mutual trust and inducting proper behavior fail, law enforcement and human rights agencies must be informed as soon as possible. In such a state of affairs, the general situation of global immigration trends must also be reflected on. Certain groups or ethnicities may not be able to adapt to the country they migrate to. A reactive social work paradigm may turn the caregivers into mere law enforcing elements. This may lead to approval of coercion, persecution, and discrimination. And the problem of cross-cultural assimilation is made graver at this stage of distrust and use of force (Gold & Nawwyn, 2013). In sum, the social workers must handle family issues in trans-cultural backdrops with more care, sympathy, understanding, and of course, knowledge of culture-specific customs of the target ethnic group. Moreover, refining one’s communication skills with a knowledge based approach to handle different cultures, ethnicities, and economic sections of the citizenry can help in facilitating practical conflict resolution (Armitage, 2011; Samovar et al., 2009) Conclusion A family is actually a group of people who are intricately related among themselves in unique ways. Values in a Christian family may not be adjustable with those in a Muslim family. Again, the approach should be different in handling a Christian family from the Caribbean Islands and a Christian family from Mexico as far as the social and legal context of the countries such as USA is concerned. Moreover, an excessively lenient approach for handling cross-cultural family issues may lead to serious problems. The social workers must not neglect the possibilities of human trafficking, drug addiction, sexual abuse, etc. both inside and outside an immigrant family. Similar problems may surface while handling the native African American families of USA as well. These problems are also prominent in handling East European migrants and families who come to settle in the Western countries. During cultural competence development and implementation, anti-racist policies must focus on the prejudices based on color, race, and religion (Sue, 2006). Enhancement in social work progress and training can be achieved by systematic comprehension of different family arrangements in different cultural situations, as per the various related social customs and values (Laird, 2008). Therefore, a coherent approach based on developing intercultural competence can be helpful in this situation. If cultural diversities and contradictions are taken care of, the social worker can build a rewarding relationship with any family in need of help. References Aldunate, R. (1999). Issues for women of non-English speaking backgrounds. Domestic Violence Court Assistance Conference, Magnetic Island, Australia, March 1999. Brisbane: Women's Legal Services. Armitage, A. (2011). Comparing the policy of aboriginal assimilation: Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Carballeira, N. (1996). Cultural sensitivity and diversity awareness: Bridging the gap between families and providers. Source, 6(1-6), 12. Cross, T., Bazron, B., Dennis, K., & Isaacs, N. (1989). Toward a culturally competent system of care, volume 1. Washington DC: Georgetown University. Frey, R. (2006). The practice of discipline: The child's right to a culture vs. the child's right to safety. Multicultural Child Safety Forum, Logan, Australia, June 2006. Maroochydore: University of Sunshine Coast. Gold, S., & Nawyn, S. (2013). Routledge international handbook of migration studies. New York: Routledge. International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. (2004). World perspectives on child abuse. Illinois: Author. Lee, M.Y. (2003). A solution-focused approach to cross-cultural clinical social work practice: Utilizing cultural strengths. Families in Society, 84, 385-395. Liard, S. (2008). Anti-oppressive social work: A guide for developing cultural competence. London: Sage Publications Mederos, F., & Woldeguiorguis, I. (2003). Beyond cultural competence: What child protection managers need to know and do. Child Welfare, 82, 125-42. Samovar, A., Porter, R., & McDaniel, E. (2009). Communication between cultures. Boston: Cengage. Sue, D.W. (2006). Multicultural social work practice. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons. Read More