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Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

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Social Work and Migration: Immigrant

and Refugee Settlement and
Integration
a
Östen Wahlbeck
a
Åbo Akademi University
Published online: 10 Dec 2010.

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

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2010.536474

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 Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
selling shoes door-to-door. Interwoven with in-
timate details of character and personality are
contextual details such as those describing the
formation of the shoemakers’ lodges that served as
employment support centres, i.e. unions. Linking
the personal and the collective to the economic
realities of capitalism, Lee goes on to describe
Sampson’s ‘bewilderment and annoyance’ when he
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
for hiring.
Downloaded by [University of Tennessee, Knoxville] at 21:17 26 December 2014
My only reservations about the volume relate to
its Canadian material and the interpretation of
some aspects of Canadian history in the context of
the out-migration of the French Canadians. First, I
question two small points with regard to geogra-
phical accuracy. The town mentioned in New
Brunswick should be Saint John, not St. John’s
which is in Newfoundland (p. 181). Secondly,
I question whether the skyline shown in Fig. 3.7
is actually Montreal; my guess is that it is a view
from Montreal Island looking to the south shore.
More significantly, the reference to the ‘Canadian
Constitution’ in the period 183741 is inaccurate.
In fact the first document representing what might
be thought of as a constitution is the Canadian
British North America Act (BNA) of 1867, at which
time Canada officially came into being. Actually,
Canada did not have its own Constitution until
1982 when a Bill of Rights was incorporated into
the BNA. Finally, the interpretation of the relation-
ship French Canadians had with their rural
farms in Quebec is problematic, as it relies upon
drawing parallels with the experiences of the
Acadians in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
which do not exist. In addition, one passage
implies that the British were responsible for
keeping the French Canadian farmers in unpro-
ductive practices, whereas research has shown that
in fact soil depletion and the reticence to move into
new types of farming were related to many decades
of poor practice as well as lack of funding and
material support from their colonial masters in
France.
Despite these reservations, the overall flowing
narrative and superb ethnographic analysis of
historic images and text archives make this a
rewarding book. It should be of interest to a wide
range of readers who will feel enriched by its
sensitive exploration of the intimate and globalised
677
lives of Chinese and French Canadian migrant
workers in the context of the industrialisation of
small American towns.
Joan Marshall
McGill University
McGill School of Environment
# 2011, Joan Marshall
Kathleen Valtonen, Social Work and Migration:
Immigrant and Refugee Settlement and Integration
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008, 232 pp., £55.00 hb.
(ISBN 978-0-7546-7194-7)
This book is intended primarily for scholars, practi-
tioners and students in the discipline of social work.
However, the broad spectrum of the content and the
theoretical approach of the presentation also make the
book suitable for a far wider audience.
The author has long been engaged in research on
the integration of immigrants and refugees in
Finland, Canada, Trinidad and Barbados. Her
varied background gives the book a rare interna-
tional perspective, and enables an examination of
general, rather than nation-specific, processes of
immigrant integration and the role of social work
therein. Hence, the author’s empirical findings are
not emphasised in this book, and the reader is given
only very short examples taken from her studies in
individual countries. The book aims to provide an
overview of various theories and theoretical con-
cepts concerning immigrant and refugee settlement
and integration, as well as different approaches and
explanations that can be applied to social work with
refugees and immigrants. The author draws on a
wide range of research in migration which is not
usually included in social work literature.
The wide scope of the book is impressive; it
covers various social, political, economic and
cultural issues on macro, meso and micro levels.
Unfortunately, this breadth also means that the
reader might experience a lack of depth in
particular sections of the book, as most of the
theories, approaches and concepts covered can
only be dealt with very briefly.
Logically enough, the book starts with a pre-
sentation of immigration as a social phenomenon
and its implications for social work. The author
situates social work with immigrants in a larger
human rights context, giving the book as a whole a
 678 Reviews
universal and general perspective on social work. The
presentation of theories of citizenship rights and
debates about citizenship flow naturally on from this
opening. This is followed by a discussion of the
relationship of refugees and immigrants to the state,
the market and civil society; the latter is the most
central for the book and is given the most attention.
One chapter also gives a short, but good, introduc-
tion to various concepts used to describe immigrant
inclusion in the society of settlement: acculturation,
integration, assimilation and multiculturalism.
Downloaded by [University of Tennessee, Knoxville] at 21:17 26 December 2014
The book continues with a presentation of the
political context of integration and practice modes for
settlement social work. Separate chapters about ‘the
second generation’ and social work practice with
family systems are also included. Towards the end of
the volume, the author discusses differences between
countries with regard to the development and im-
plementation of social policy and settlement services.
The book ends with a discussion of settlement practice
and ethical principles, connecting back to the author’s
general emphasis on linking social work closely to
questions of human rights and citizenship.
As its title suggests, the book is focused on the
integration and settlement of immigrants and
refugees in their new countries. Migration as
such and the consequences of emigration in the
countries of origin receive less attention, and
mainly as part of a very brief discussion of the
topical question of transnationalism among im-
migrant groups. However, themes such as these
are covered in other works, and a book focusing
solely on the integration and settlement aspects of
the migration process is most welcome.
The book’s wide coverage of theories and
concepts from various social science disciplines
makes it suitable for readers both within and
outside the specific discipline of social work. The
volume’s strength is this broad theoretical and
general perspective, while more detailed discus-
sions have to be sought elsewhere. Social Work and
Migration provides an important reference source
and can profitably be used in combination with
other books with a more specific focus. The author’s
own extensive experience has contributed to this
well-balanced introduction to a difficult subject.
Östen Wahlbeck
Åbo Akademi University
# 2011, Östen Wahlbeck
Robert Nichols, A History of Pashtun Migration,
1775-2006
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, 350 pp.,
£13.99 hb. (ISBN 978-0-19-547600-2)
In A History of Pashtun Migration, 17752006,
Robert Nichols provides an in-depth historical,
anthropological, sociological and economic
overview of the importance of migration and
circulation in Pashtun society. Pashtuns are an
ethno-linguistic group from the PakistanAfghani-
stan border area. Nichols states, ‘Regionally, for
centuries, agrarian districts with little irrigation and
limited rainfall in eastern Afghanistan, the northern
and western colonial Punjab, and the North-West
Frontier Province produced surplus workers look-
ing outside the immediate village economy for
subsistence and opportunity’ (p. 3). This book
highlights specific moments in Pashtun migration
that have defined Pashtun society in the homelands
and in the Diaspora.
The first chapter provides an introduction to
the methodology and an outline of the book. The
study is a historical narrative using archival and
other historical sources; the analysis, at the micro-
and meso-levels, is of the impact of migration on
individuals, families and communities.
Chapters 24 examine key historical migration
movements of the Pashtuns from 1600 to the
1950s. The movements began with Pashtun mi-
gration to Northern India. Chapter 2 explains the
integration of the Pashtuns with the ‘Rohillas’ of
Northern India. The term ‘Rohillas’ came to
reflect a professional identity and not a fixed
ethnicity. This chapter also considers the move-
ments of Pashtun traders between India and
Pashtun villages and as low-skilled labourers to
India. Chapter 3 moves on to discuss the British
invasion of India and the expansion of the East
India Trading Company, which brought an ex-
tensive regime change, and how Pashtuns nego-
tiated their place in India. Pashtuns were forced
into more sedentary lifestyles during this time as
the British took over trading routes. Chapter 4
discusses the role of the integration of Pashtuns
into the slave trade as they migrated to Latin
America, Africa and the Caribbean. It details the
key role the Pashtuns played in the Australian
outback as skilled travellers of the terrain. Pash-
tuns occupied both low-skilled positions and
higher-ranking positions during this time. The