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Asistenta Sociala Si Migratie
Asistenta Sociala Si Migratie
Asistenta Sociala Si Migratie
To cite this article: Östen Wahlbeck (2011) Social Work and Migration: Immigrant and Refugee
Settlement and Integration, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37:4, 677-678, DOI:
10.1080/1369183X.2010.536474
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Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 677
selling shoes door-to-door. Interwoven with in- lives of Chinese and French Canadian migrant
timate details of character and personality are workers in the context of the industrialisation of
contextual details such as those describing the small American towns.
formation of the shoemakers’ lodges that served as
employment support centres, i.e. unions. Linking Joan Marshall
the personal and the collective to the economic McGill University
realities of capitalism, Lee goes on to describe McGill School of Environment
Sampson’s ‘bewilderment and annoyance’ when he # 2011, Joan Marshall
discovers that the French Canadian workers have
formed the lodge which was to assert itself as a de
facto union determined to demand a closed shop Kathleen Valtonen, Social Work and Migration:
for hiring. Immigrant and Refugee Settlement and Integration
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My only reservations about the volume relate to Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008, 232 pp., £55.00 hb.
its Canadian material and the interpretation of (ISBN 978-0-7546-7194-7)
some aspects of Canadian history in the context of
the out-migration of the French Canadians. First, I This book is intended primarily for scholars, practi-
question two small points with regard to geogra- tioners and students in the discipline of social work.
phical accuracy. The town mentioned in New However, the broad spectrum of the content and the
Brunswick should be Saint John, not St. John’s theoretical approach of the presentation also make the
which is in Newfoundland (p. 181). Secondly, book suitable for a far wider audience.
I question whether the skyline shown in Fig. 3.7 The author has long been engaged in research on
is actually Montreal; my guess is that it is a view the integration of immigrants and refugees in
from Montreal Island looking to the south shore. Finland, Canada, Trinidad and Barbados. Her
More significantly, the reference to the ‘Canadian varied background gives the book a rare interna-
Constitution’ in the period 183741 is inaccurate. tional perspective, and enables an examination of
In fact the first document representing what might general, rather than nation-specific, processes of
be thought of as a constitution is the Canadian immigrant integration and the role of social work
British North America Act (BNA) of 1867, at which therein. Hence, the author’s empirical findings are
time Canada officially came into being. Actually, not emphasised in this book, and the reader is given
Canada did not have its own Constitution until only very short examples taken from her studies in
1982 when a Bill of Rights was incorporated into individual countries. The book aims to provide an
the BNA. Finally, the interpretation of the relation- overview of various theories and theoretical con-
ship French Canadians had with their rural cepts concerning immigrant and refugee settlement
farms in Quebec is problematic, as it relies upon and integration, as well as different approaches and
drawing parallels with the experiences of the explanations that can be applied to social work with
Acadians in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick refugees and immigrants. The author draws on a
which do not exist. In addition, one passage wide range of research in migration which is not
implies that the British were responsible for usually included in social work literature.
keeping the French Canadian farmers in unpro- The wide scope of the book is impressive; it
ductive practices, whereas research has shown that covers various social, political, economic and
in fact soil depletion and the reticence to move into cultural issues on macro, meso and micro levels.
new types of farming were related to many decades Unfortunately, this breadth also means that the
of poor practice as well as lack of funding and reader might experience a lack of depth in
material support from their colonial masters in particular sections of the book, as most of the
France. theories, approaches and concepts covered can
Despite these reservations, the overall flowing only be dealt with very briefly.
narrative and superb ethnographic analysis of Logically enough, the book starts with a pre-
historic images and text archives make this a sentation of immigration as a social phenomenon
rewarding book. It should be of interest to a wide and its implications for social work. The author
range of readers who will feel enriched by its situates social work with immigrants in a larger
sensitive exploration of the intimate and globalised human rights context, giving the book as a whole a
678 Reviews
universal and general perspective on social work. The Robert Nichols, A History of Pashtun Migration,
presentation of theories of citizenship rights and 1775-2006
debates about citizenship flow naturally on from this Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, 350 pp.,
opening. This is followed by a discussion of the £13.99 hb. (ISBN 978-0-19-547600-2)
relationship of refugees and immigrants to the state,
the market and civil society; the latter is the most In A History of Pashtun Migration, 17752006,
central for the book and is given the most attention. Robert Nichols provides an in-depth historical,
One chapter also gives a short, but good, introduc- anthropological, sociological and economic
tion to various concepts used to describe immigrant overview of the importance of migration and
inclusion in the society of settlement: acculturation, circulation in Pashtun society. Pashtuns are an
integration, assimilation and multiculturalism. ethno-linguistic group from the PakistanAfghani-
stan border area. Nichols states, ‘Regionally, for
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