What is it about?
Families in the UK with an irregular migration status are excluded from most mainstream welfare provision through the no recourse to public funds rule, and statutory children’s social work services are one of the few welfare services available to undocumented migrant families. This article draws on semi-structured interviews with undocumented migrant families who are accessing children’s services support to illustrate the sometimes uneasy relationship between child welfare law and immigration control. Outlining the legislative and policy context for social work with undocumented migrant families in the UK, the article argues that the exclusion of migrant families from the welfare state by government policy amounts to a form of statutory neglect which is incompatible with the global social work profession’s commitment to social justice and human rights.
Featured Image
Photo by The Honest Company on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The article introduces the concept of 'statutory neglect' - actions embedded within a legal framework which would be considered to be neglectful if carried out by a parent or carer.
Perspectives
With this article, I was trying to conceptualise the experiences of undocumented migrant children and families in a way which draws on the language of social work practice. Part of the difficulty of developing anti-oppressive social work practice with undocumented migrant children is that the critiques do not always engage with the ways in which social workers understand their role.
Dr Andy Jolly
University of Wolverhampton
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: No Recourse to Social Work? Statutory Neglect, Social Exclusion and Undocumented Migrant Families in the UK, Social Inclusion, August 2018, Cogitatio,
DOI: 10.17645/si.v6i3.1486.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
