BSC (Hons) Social Work. Cross-Cultural Perspectives on society Essay

BSC (Hons) Social Work. Cross-Cultural Perspectives on society - Essay Example use practitioners and clients no longer speak the same language nor do they share similar/comparable cultural references and worldviews (Hawkins, Fook and Ryan, 2001). From an ethical perspective, multiculturalism has made negotiations through the ethical minefields of social work all the more treacherous. Suffice to say, as Bisman (2004) points out, the contemporary British social worker can no longer be guided by the ethical guidelines which inform professional British social work but needs to adopt a more universal, a-cultural ethical approach which acknowledges and respects the ethnic/cultural ethics of clients. From the theoretical perspective, this means that not only is a more multicultural professional ethics guideline required but that interventions strategies which address the challenges posed by the increasingly cross-cultural nature of the practice need to be developed (Walker, 2001; Scourfield, 2002). Not only has multiculturalism complicated the work of the British social worker from all of the theoretical, ethical and cultural perspectives, but contemporary social worker can find him/herself in a position wherein legal restrictions and regulations clash with professional duties and obligations. Given that since 1998 population and demographic changes across Britain were a direct result of the inflow of refugees and asylum seekers (Rees and Boden, 2006), social workers often find themselves in a situation wherein both their professional ethics and training dictate the imperatives of their extending help to members of this group while the law effectively constrains their ability to do so. In other words, considering that likelihood of the British social worker’s having, not only to counsel and help an ethnically diverse clientele but both refugees and asylum seekers as well, the chances of coming into contact with illegal immigrants who, despite their status are in dire ne ed of help, are high. As I discovered through personal professional