The social and economic impacts of immigration detention facilities: a South Australian case study

The negative attitudes fostered by political rhetoric against asylum seekers create significant problems when asylum seekers are housed within communities. Much of the community's opposition focuses on the perceived economic and social impacts of large numbers of asylum seekers. However, we currently lack research on the local economic and social impacts of asylum seekers. As a contribution to this evidence base our paper outlines a South Australian case study of the impact of a low security immigration detention facility on the local economy, health services and social cohesion. Our impact assessment found that community concerns were not borne out. There were increases in employment and local expenditure, no reduction in health care services or access, and tensions between residents subsided, as did initially strong reactions against the asylum seekers themselves. The minimal impacts were due to the government and community interventions such as seeking local contracts and providing onsite health services. This case study is used to provide some guidelines for other communities to effectively target the fears that matter most to the community – either through disseminating information that reduces fears and myths, or through planning and interventions that minimise negative impacts and enhance positive benefits. In this way, the arrival of asylum seekers can potentially become one that benefits all community members.     

II. The social and economic adjustment of a group of special class graduates 1

Doctoring Together, a Study of Professional Social Control. Eliot Freidson. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980.)

Object Relations and the Developing Ego in Therapy. Althea J. Horner, Ph.D. (New York: Jason Aronson, 1979.)

New Developments in Foster Care and Adoption. Ed. John Triseliotis. (London, Boston: Routledge &; Kegan Paul Ltd., 1980).

Transference Neurosis and Transference Psychosis: Toward Basic Unity. Margaret I. Little. (New York: Jason Aronson, 1981.)     

The later social adjustment of a group of borderline defective delinquents trained at the oaks school 1

In Part 1 of this article, the author provides an overview of the history of psychoanalytic treatment of those identifying as homosexual. In Part 2, the author interviews “Rob” to more fully demonstrate the corrosive effects over a lifetime of analytic and psychotherapeutic treatment, as it had once been practiced. Rob, a man primarily attracted to men, spent many years in treatment with different therapists and analysts during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Now in his early eighties, Rob is married and remains closeted to all but a few close associates. When Rob entered treatment many years ago, he was told that his homosexual attractions were symptoms of an illness and with treatment he could change. Rob's experience is uncannily similar to multiple reports that exist in the professional and lay literature. Rob knows that nothing can undo the damage he suffered, yet it remains his wish that the psychoanalytic community would acknowledge, and even apologize, to all those who were harmed—including the many who took their lives—by theories and practices that were once so central to mainstream psychoanalysis.     

Lagging behind in good times: immigrants and the increased dependence on social assistance in Sweden

Mood C. Lagging behind in good times: immigrants and the increased dependence on social assistance in Sweden Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 55–65 © 2009 The Author, Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. After the 1990s recession in Sweden, social assistance (SA) recipiency decreased to levels that were clearly lower than before the recession. However, this decrease masked a strong polarisation: the number of short‐term recipients fell, but the number of long‐term recipients was higher than before the recession. This article shows how SA recipiency and dependence changed over a whole economic cycle in Sweden's largest city, Stockholm, and asks whether the increasing dependence can be explained by immigration. It is shown that the relative increase of long‐term SA is similar among immigrants and native‐born, but decomposition analysis reveals that the increase among native‐born is of minor importance for the overall increase. Nearly half the increase can be attributed instead to the increased representation of immigrants in the population, and another 38 per cent to increased dependence among immigrants. Only 15 per cent of the total increase in long‐term SA is a result of increased dependence among native‐born.     

Part III: A student learns casework

Abstract

When homeless and severely mentally ill individuals leave housing programs designed to help them achieve stability, their very lives become at risk. Despite the prevalence of this problem and its potentially life-threatening consequences, there is a complete dearth of case studies examining why clients in programs for the homeless and mentally ill suddenly depart from those programs, and how paranoid and other seemingly unreachable clients can significantly improve the quality of their lives. This single case study, utilizing a naturalistic methodology, provides a before and after picture of a client who precipitously left a housing program, then returned two years later in a state of severe physical and mental decompensation. The study focuses on understanding why the client left the program the first time and what could be done to prevent another premature discharge. The findings point to a lack of coordination of care and problems with stable human interaction on the part of those caring for Charles, and are critical to understanding how to engage successfully with homeless and severely mentally ill clients.     

Factors affecting the constancy of the intelligence quotients of problem children 1

Abstract

This theoretical study is based on the premise that the dynamics of metaphor, the joining of two disparate entities in a single relational field to produce a new concept, represent a prototype of change. Literature is reviewed as it applies to certain relationships between metaphor and psychotherapy. As both metaphor and psychotherapy are rooted in language, language is viewed both as it informs the self and as it is used as a tool of psychotherapy. Psychoanalytic theory of language development is presented as are theories of how language, specifically metaphor, might be integrated and influence the change process.     

Competing frames of immigrant integration in the EU: geographies of social inclusion in Italian regions

After the federal reform of 2001, Italian regions have gained greater autonomy in matters of social policy, including immigrant integration. In this paper, we assess frames of immigrant integration in eight Italian regions, i.e. Piedmont, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna in the North, Umbria, Marche and Abruzzi in the Centre, Basilicata and Calabria in the South, against the EU equal treatment and mobility rights-based regime. Through a diachronic analysis of the regions' official documents on immigrants' integration approved in the period 2000–2010, we shall consider: (1) the policy priorities identified and the measures funded and (2) the implementation structures. The analysis points out how the frames of immigrant integration emerging at a regional level shape different geographies of social inclusion which are sometimes openly in contradiction with the EU discourse on equal treatment and mobility rights. Immigration is perceived more as an economic asset for local labour markets' unsatisfied demand for low-qualified, flexible, and often informal workers, rather than as a strategic resource for the realisation of a competitive and knowledge-based European economy.     

Influence of environmental factors on the social adjustment of epileptics paroled from a mental hospital 1

Women, the Family and Social Work. Eve Brooks and Ann Davis. (New York: Methuen, Inc. 1985.)

The Borderline Spectrum. Differential Diagnosis and Developmental Issues. W. W. Meissner. (New York: Jason Aronson, 1984.)

The Private Practice of Psychotherapy. Arnold M. Levin. (New York: The Free Press, 1983.)     

A study of social adjustment and incidence of mental disease in six generations of a family 1

While on the street, youth encounter many circumstances that have the potential to bring physical, psychological, and spiritual harm to them. Homelessness for youths seems to occur as a process or journey that appears to parallel a Rite of Passage Framework. This article develops a conceptual model called the Runaway Rite of Passage Framework, which may provide service providers with a way to categorize the stages through which homeless youth transition. Also, this article explores the typologies of homeless youth. Assessment strategies at the different stages in the runaway rite of passage are discussed to assist in identifying possible intervention buffers that may help the youth. The focus of this theoretical reflection addresses how to reverse the transition toward homelessness with strategies that will lead to stable living situations for street youth.     

The effects on children of witnessing violence: implications for social work practice

The study adopted a retrospective design to understand the effects of witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV) on children during their childhood and later in their adult life. The study was based on in-depth interviews with 12 adults from Hong Kong who had witnessed violence in their childhood. The respondents were chosen using an available sampling method. Thematic content analysis was used for data analysis. The findings of this study suggest that long-term adverse effects of witnessing violence are not caused simply by exposure to IPV in childhood, but the effects are associated with the social construction of victim identity.     

The social services response to unaccompanied children in England

In England, social services departments have a duty to provide care and protection to unaccompanied asylum seeking children from the point they arrive in the country. In recent years, research studies have identified a number of practice and policy issues of concern regarding the social services response to unaccompanied children. This paper focuses on three broad issues that emerge from the literature. The paper explores research concerns associated with (i) the referral and assessment process, (ii) the use of the child welfare legislative framework, and (iii) a number of issues arising from the provision of placements and other support offered to unaccompanied children. The findings of the research reviewed demonstrate that there are indeed clear grounds for concern. However, this paper argues that the evidence base is relatively weak and that as a result we know very little about the nature and context of the social work response to this group of children and young people.