The Place of Environment in Social Work. Case study: Social Workers Working with Refugees in France

The present paper is based on the Master Thesis in the context of MA in Advanced Development in Social Work (ADVANCES) from 2015 which explored the practice of social workers in France working with refugees in order to answer the question of how much environmentally oriented are their practices. The research aimed at discussing the role of the social work profession in the context of the environmental crisis that is challenging the balance of our planet and is rooted in the industrialized human activities. Climate change as the pick dimension of the environmental crisis has disproportionate impacts on people moreover the ones vulnerable and living in poverty. As these people represent one target of social work, the role of the profession is looked at in rapport within the environmental crisis and the stand social workers should take in this direction. The study followed two stages. Firstly, an exploratory study of the French context was undertaken to create an overview of how the issues tackled are understood and operated within practice. Secondly, various social workers working with refugees engaged into a process of finding an answer to the research question by sharing their experience and brainstorming ways in which environmental dimension could be brought to their practice. Based on the investigations of the MA thesis, in this article I look at the social work practice from a holistic standpoint and bring into the discussion aspects from the representation of the environment for social workers and how much environment is considered in their work, to the implications of climate change for the work with refugees and what is the connection between environmental issues and social work profession. Grounded in the implications for the social work education, practice and research discussed within the study, I also bring in a series of recommendation for future research and practice which aligns itself with the vision that social work should extend its ambit to include ecological concerns.


Keywords: environmental justice, ecological justice, environmentally oriented social work practice, climate refugees