An Unacceptable Role for Social Work: Implementing Immigration Policy

Social work has always had a role in policing the boundaries of welfare, and under New Labour there has been a decisive shift to an increasingly narrow and negative practice. This article takes social work’s involvement in internal immigration controls as an example of the profession’s complicity in implementing social policies that are degrading and inhuman. It argues that social work has adopted a reactionary and uncritical view of policy, and asks whether there might be a more progressive future for the profession.