Social Work with Immigrants and Refugees: Legal Issues, Clinical Skills, and Advocacy

Praise for the First Edition:

"This book is an optimal tool for instructors and students of graduate classes in social work and related disciplines."

Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health

"This book is a major contribution to social workers and their clients as it addresses advocacy on behalf of immigrants and refugees during a social, economic, and political period that restricts immigrants' rights and service access."

Dr. Diane Drachman, Associate Professor

University of Connecticut School of Social Work

"This text is a great tool toward raising awareness of the many issues immigrants face, and helping them find solutions."

Frank Sharry, Executive Director, America's Voice

The leading textbook on social work with immigrants and refugees, this is the only book to address the intersection of legal, policy, and advocacy issues, in addition to the clinical skills needed to help these populations. This second edition has been updated to reflect key policy changes at the state and federal levels affecting social work with immigrants and refugees. The authors have expanded their coverage of transnationalism, microaggressions, and public health and community issues, and each chapter features updated case studies on the most critical issues immigrants face today: legal processes, physical and mental health issues, employment difficulties, family conflicts, and more.

Key Features:

• Completely updated to reflect the latest developments in immigration law and policy
• Includes updated case studies, discussion questions, and abundant reference material
• Provides the multidisciplinary perspective of lawyers, social workers, clinicians, administrators, and academics
• A valuable asset for students and practitioners working in mental health, health care, education, and community settings
• All-new appendix features sample questions asked at naturalization interviews

Fernando Chang-Muy, JD, is the Thomas O'Boyle Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he teaches refugee law and policy. He also lectures on immigration and social work and on organizational effectiveness at the Graduate School of Social Policy & Practice, Executive Education Program, with a focus on strategic planning, board governance, and resource development.

Drawing on his experience in law, refugee camp administration, and philanthropy, Professor Chang-Muy also provides independent consulting, coaching, and training to government agencies, local and national philanthropic institutions, social service agencies, and cultural organizations. His specific areas of expertise that help to strengthen the effectiveness of organizations include strategic planning, board governance, resource development (with a focus on individual donor campaigns), human resource development, and meeting and process facilitation. Recent clients include the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Aging, and the City of Philadelphia's Law Department and Health Department.

He has also served as director of the local chapter of Hispanics in Philanthropy, a $50-million nationwide philanthropic collaborative, increasing the net amount of dollars flowing to Latino nonprofits. He is a former program officer at the Philadelphia Foundation and past coordinator of the Emma Lazarus Collaborative, a funding collaborative that, through matching grants from the Open Society Institute, supported nonprofit organizations providing service and advocacy for immigrants and refugees. He has also served as start-up founding director of the Liberty Center for Survivors of Torture, a federally funded project that provides services and advocacy for survivors of torture. He is a former co-chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association's International Human Rights Committee, and a former assistant dean and equal opportunity officer of Swarthmore College, where he also taught international human rights.

From 1988 to 1993, he served as legal officer with two UN agencies, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Health Organization (WHO), serving as the human rights officer for its Global Program on AIDS. Before joining the UN, he was a staff attorney at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, where he served as director of the Southeast Asian Refugee Project, managing the provision of free legal aid to low-income people in Philadelphia.

He is a graduate of Loyola (BA), Georgetown (MA), and Antioch (JD) Universities, and of the Harvard Law School's Negotiation Program. His awards include the 1982-1983 Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship (Reggie), awarded by Congress through Howard University to law school graduates committed to civil rights; the 1990 21st Century Trust Fellowship from the United Kingdom; the 2001 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Social Justice Award from the Rutgers University School of Law; the 2002 Michael Greenberg GALLOP award for leadership, activism, and legal advocacy; the 2007 La Justicia Award from the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania; and the 2007 Delaware Valley's Most Influential Latinos from El Concilio and the Multicultural Affairs Congress. In July 2008, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter appointed him to the board of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

Elaine P. Congress, DSW, LCSW, is associate dean and professor at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service. She has authored 10 books on cultural diversity, immigrants, health, and ethics including two editions of Social Work with Immigrants and Refugees and her recent book on Health and Social Work. This book is the fourth edition of her book Multicultural Perspectives in Working With Families. Several of her books have been translated into Korean. She created the culturagram, a family assessment tool that has been widely used in professional work with immigrants, refugees, children, older people, indigenous peoples, survivors of family violence, and those with health problems. More information about her culturagram and work with immigrants can be found in these podcasts: http: //socialworkpodcast.com/2008/12/visual-assessment-tools-culturagram.html and http: //www.socialworkpodcast.com/2009/02/social-work-with-immigrants-and.html. Most recently, she developed the Intersectional Design Tool to promote better understanding of clients and their families.

Dr. Congress has presented locally at conferences in New York City; nationally at conferences in Orlando, Atlanta, Washington, Philadelphia, Saratoga, and Boston; and at international conferences in Guelph, Canada, London, Amsterdam, Tempere, Finland, Munich, Seoul, and Adelaide. At the United Nations, Dr. Congress represents the International Federation of Social Workers, participates as the vice chair of the NGO Committee on Mental Health, recording secretary of the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and also is a member of the NGO Committee on Migration and the NGO Committee on the Status of Women. A former president of NYC National Association of Social Workers and currently on the board of NASAW Pioneers, she now serves on the Governing Council of the American Public Health Association and on the boards of the International Council on Psychology (ICP) and the Manhattan Psychological Association. She has received awards from the National Association of Social Workers, American Public Health Association, the Latino Social Work Coalition, the Hispanic Mental Health Professionals, and the NYS Social Work Education Association. Dr. Congress has a master's of rts in teaching from Yale, a master's of science in social work from Columbia University, a master's of arts in psychology from the New School of Social Research, and a doctorate in social welfare from the City University of New York.