Social work and the Greek refugee crisis: a postcolonial approach

Abstract

This thesis examines different social work practices in different contexts with the purpose of underlining the impact of colonial technologies embedded to dominant social work practices. It attempts to study colonialism, not only as a form of military rule but also as a discourse of white supremacy and male domination, and explores the emergence of social work as a profession and as an academic discipline in order to highlight its relations with the project of colonialism and the civilizing mission. Specifically, this thesis argues that social work is a ―western invention‖ whose models have been enforced without exception in non-western countries and attempts to study the eurocentrism and hegemonic western thought of contemporary social work. Using the example of the emergence of social work in South Africa, it attempts to highlight the profession‘s continued coloniality in postcolonial states and the fact that the origin of social work is connected with philanthropic work and maintaining social control over its working-class clients. An attempt is made to study the Greek refugee ―crisis‖ as a neo-orientalistic discourse and the strengthening of EU‘s external borders and racialized anti-immigrant policies as processes that established Europe as a ―racial supra-state‖ while creating the non-European Other as illegal and potentially dangerous. Examples of racist and sexist practices from white social workers are used from social working in the UK and in Greece during the refugee ―crisis‖, specifically the case of a refugee shelter for unaccompanied minors through the social workers‘ union‘s reports. The claim that social work is an apolitical and neutral profession whose sole purpose is to ―do good‖ is challenged through a Foucaultian analysis of service user‘s resistance to racist and sexist practices that highlights power relations between white social workers and black clients. Specifically, the US welfare rights movement and the Greek evictions movement are studied as examples of service users‘ resistance. Finally, the need to decolonize social work as proposed by postcolonial scholars is discussed, so it can work towards one of the profession‘s aims, achieving social justice.